


The Perils of Prehistoric Marriage

by crystalkei



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Fake Marriage, Friends to Lovers, Minor Wells Jaha/Raven Reyes, Pining Clarke
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-07-21 14:59:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7391890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystalkei/pseuds/crystalkei
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“2149 is bleak. The economy is suffering, the air is so polluted it gives us all lung cancer, we’ve ignored global warming and stripped the earth of all her best resources, overpopulation has plagued our society for 100 years. Not all hope is lost though! If you’re in one of these highly sought after career fields you, yes you could get a one way ticket to the past, to our future’s greatest hope, Terra Nova.”</p><p>“Turn that shit off,” Clarke said as Raven sat comfortably watching the TV. </p><p>“I’m watching the game, it’s not my fault there’s a recruiting commercial on,” Raven defended. </p><p>“I don’t even know who paid for those commercials. Probably the government to make people excited about the colony.” Clarke spun around a few times looking for something in their tiny apartment. “You, of all people, know it’s not that easy to get there. They don’t need a commercial to find people to go. Everyone is falling over themselves to get there. So and so’s cousin knows a guy, a sister of a friend of a coworker heard there’s a trick to the lottery.”</p><p>“I can’t believe they’re not advertising with dinosaurs. Everybody fuckin’ loves dinosaurs. That’s a selling point,” Raven said with a bright grin. </p><p>A Terra Nova AU</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve taken great care to make sure you don’t have to have any knowledge of Terra Nova to read this. I’m really only using the setting because fucking dinosaurs. :)

“2149 is bleak. The economy is suffering, the air is so polluted it gives us all lung cancer, we’ve ignored global warming and stripped the earth of all her best resources, overpopulation has plagued our society for 100 years. Not all hope is lost though! If you’re in one of these highly sought after career fields you, yes you could get a one way ticket to the past, to our future’s greatest hope, Terra Nova.”

“Turn that shit off,” Clarke said as Raven sat comfortably watching the TV. 

“I’m watching the game, it’s not my fault there’s a recruiting commercial on,” Raven defended. 

“I don’t even know who paid for those commercials. Probably the government to make people excited about the colony.” Clarke spun around a few times looking for something in their tiny apartment. “You, of all people, know it’s not that easy to get there. They don’t need a commercial to find people to go. Everyone is falling over themselves to get there. So and so’s cousin knows a guy, a sister of a friend of a coworker heard there’s a trick to the lottery.”

Raven rolled her eyes and Clarke seemed to find what she was looking for. She picked up the scarf that was peeking out of the couch cushion and shoved it in her bag. 

“I can’t believe they’re not advertising with dinosaurs. Everybody fuckin’ loves dinosaurs. That’s a selling point,” Raven said with a bright grin. 

“They’ll probably try to eat us.” Clarke blew some hair out of her face. 

“I’d be more scared of your mom than the dinos,” Raven muttered. 

“I am, thanks,” Clarke replied. “Aren’t you nervous?” 

“This place is awful. I’m looking forward to not wearing a rebreather when I leave the apartment, to fresh fruits and vegetables, and I bought these yesterday.” Raven put on a pair of sunglasses and smiled. “Heard I’m gonna need them because you can actually see the sun. Can you imagine?”

The air outside their building was dark, Clarke couldn’t remember the last time she saw the sun, maybe when they’d taken that family vacation to Samoa when she was 10? You could still see the sun from some of those islands in the Pacific. If the atmosphere was just right. 

“Where’s mine?” Clarke asked. 

“I didn’t get you any,” Raven answered. “These cost me a fortune.”

“Didn’t get your wife sunglasses, you’re so bad at this,” Clarke said. 

“Shut up.” Raven threw a couch pillow at her. “How long do you think we’ll have to keep up appearances? I only ask because you’re a terrible liar.” 

 

“Am not!” 

“Oh you totally are. That’s why I had to do all the talking at the courthouse,” Raven reminded her. 

“I was nervous on my wedding day.” Clarke stuck her tongue out at Raven. “I think about six weeks should be long enough. Assuming you can keep your pants on in Wells’ presence.” 

“It’s really a matter of can he resist me, I mean look at me.” Raven ran a hand down her side. 

“True,” Clarke said, nodding her head. 

“I’ll take being married to you for six weeks instead of staying in this hell hole for another day...also Wells.” 

“And I just have to survive my mother.” 

“You can do it, I believe in you,” Raven teased.

Clarke pushed her shoulder. “Jerk.” 

“You pronounced best friend wrong,” Raven said. 

Clarke rolled her eyes now. “We should sleep. We have to get on the train to Hope Plaza at 6am sharp.” 

“You’re so bossy.” 

“Are you even packed?” Clarke asked, annoyed. 

“Yes, but are you?”

“Totally.” 

Raven held up Clarke’s father’s watch and immediately Clarke snatched it from her.

“You left that in the bathroom after your shower,” Raven said. 

“Fine,” she said, stuffing the watch in her bag. “Now I’m packed.”  
\--

“Blake.” 

Bellamy burrowed his head further into his pillow. But the voice didn’t go away. 

“C’mon man, I’m calling in a favor.” 

“It’s my day off,” he muttered, not moving. 

“I know, that’s why I know you can do me this favor.” 

Bellamy groaned. When he asked Wells for a favor last month (going out of the gates without any security so he could find a runaway Octavia) he didn’t actually think Wells would ever cash in. That’s why he asked him. 

“Wells, I’m very busy sleeping in.” 

“I need you to go meet some people at the portal for me.” 

Bellamy rolled over and scrunched up his face. “That’s not a small favor. That’s a two mile walk on my day off, early on my day off.”

Wells was unapologetic. “I wanted to do it myself but there’s a problem at Outpost Alpha, would you rather go to Outpost Alpha and let me go to the portal?”

“Not cool, man, you know I don’t want to do that,” Bellamy said, scrubbing the sleep from his eyes. Gina was at Outpost Alpha and while the breakup was months ago, and mutual, the last thing he wanted to do was meditate some science kerfuffle with her staring at him. 

“So I need you to go to the portal,” Wells said again. 

\--

When he got there, Bellamy leaned against a tree away from all the hustle and bustle of the support staff working the pilgrimage. It was overcast but he had his sunglasses on anyway. He knew the sun would show itself any minute and ruin this already bad morning by shining brightly right in his eyes. 

“What are you doing here?” Dr. Abby Griffin asked him, clearly annoyed. 

Though to be fair, Bellamy had never heard her when she wasn't annoyed. It was entirely possible she had moments of excitement or happiness but Bellamy assumed her default was annoyed as it was all he’d ever heard from her. 

Bellamy took a drink of coffee from the small thermos he’d brought with him before he answered. Not because he was thirsty, but because he knew it would piss off Dr. Griffin. 

“Wells asked me to be here to welcome Clarke and Raven.” 

“Clarke is my daughter. I’m here for her and Raven.” Her hands were on her hips and she was glaring.

“Wells was pretty adamant about dragging my ass out of bed to be here so I guess he thought you weren’t going to be helpful enough,” Bellamy said. 

It was totally possible that Wells knew Abby was working the pilgrimage and that’s why he wanted someone to meet the women but the goal was to irritate Dr. Griffin and he felt like he was doing a fair job of it considering the lack of prep he’d had and the fact that it was early. 

“You don’t even know Clarke,” she snapped. 

“Nope, I just know that she’s one of Wells’ best friends and she’s your daughter.” Bellamy rolled his shoulders, using the tree he was leaning against to scratch a spot on his back. “It’s tricky for me, she could be cool like Wells and we’ll get along fine. If she takes after her mother...well…”

“Remind me why you're here in Terra Nova, Blake,” she said, sternly.

“To be a pain in your ass, mostly,” he said with a shrug. 

“You were a lottery winner, weren't you?” she asked, ignoring his snark. 

Bellamy made a clicking noise to confirm her statement.

“Your sister wasn't though.” 

Now he stood up a little straighter. “Lottery winners are allowed their families.”

“But not if their family members are criminals,” Abby replied, unruffled. 

“Being the second child is hardly her fault, she's not the criminal.” Bellamy tried to stamp down the anger in his tone. “My mother already died in jail for it.”

“Sure, but spots to Terra Nova are competitive and I still don't know how you got her here. It's stated clearly in the rules that second children aren't welcome.”

“She's not my child, but she's my only family and she's here legally,” he said, centering himself, it didn't matter now, Octavia was here, the portal only went one way, Dr. Griffin couldn't do anything about Octavia, even if she knew something. “You can pull on that thread all you want, Abby, but you're gonna get bored. It's a short thread. Nothing interesting when you unspool it.” 

“Dr. Griffin,” another doctor called. “We're getting word that an infant in a incubator is coming through first.”

“Shit, I wish we had more notice than this,” Abby mumbled, before leaving Bellamy alone. 

Very shortly, the portal started to spark and crackle and people began to come through one by one. It stood in a clearing, a large metal arm covered in circuits and lights. When it was closed it was just a metal half circle, but when it opened it became a shining sort of mirror, like looking through water, except instead of the river basin or sea floor, a faint outline of a large building in the future. 

Bellamy had worked a couple of pilgrimages since he came through on the Seventh and he hated it. People had a tendency to collapse, not used to the blessedly clean air, they also puked a lot or they just came through so excited that they were a pain to listen to. He was fully aware of his cynical nature but it was what it was. After three years in paradise, he’d grown complacent. He'd escaped the hell of the future to a better life in this past and he didn't care to listen to people in awe and wonder as they stepped into the past for the first time. He knew there was a whole set of different problems here. 

A pretty woman with a high ponytail and light brown skin came through the portal and Bellamy pushed off from the tree. She looked older than the photo Wells had shown him, but not much. Though that was expected, it’d been three years since Wells had seen her.

“Raven Reyes?” Bellamy asked as the woman leaned over and started to heave. 

A blonde came barreling through the portal and looked around quickly, barely affected by the air or the sunshine that had peeked through the clouds as Bellamy predicted. She took three steps towards Raven and immediately dropped her bag to rub Raven’s back as she puked. 

“So you're Clarke then?” Bellamy asked, hoping she wouldn't also start throwing up. 

She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. “Who are you?”

“I'm Bellamy Blake,” he said, trying to ignore the beauty mark above her lip. It was like a flashing neon sign directing people to gaze at her lips. “Wells sent me, something came up and he's sorry he couldn't meet you two.”

Clarke brushed him off quickly, her eyes darting around the clearing where the portal was, taking in all the sights, he assumed. They all did it when they came through. It was exciting to breathe in the air and see all the green. He was cynical, but he remembered what it was like. Octavia shouted and raised her arms, thrilled, he was too busy looking at the fluffy clouds.

She took a deep breath, starting out fine but on the exhale she started to cough. A lot. She bent over like Raven now and for the second time he hoped she didn’t also start to vomit. It was starting to smell. 

“That's normal,” he said. 

She was very hot and very married, so he figured he could stand to be Asshole Bellamy instead of Nice Guy Bellamy. It would help him ignore how hot she was. 

Raven stood up for a second, wiping at her mouth, and Clarke recovered enough to remember Raven existed. She gave her a small smile before Raven, once again, went on puking. The puddle of vomit was starting to get bad so Bellamy turned around and flagged down someone from medical to come and check Raven out. They gave her a quick shot and some water, all while Clarke looked on. 

“I know it's normal,” Clarke replied, belatedly. “I'm a doctor.”

“But you've never been here so all the reading in the world can't really prepare you for what it's like coming through the portal.” He ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “Is there a class in med school about being superior and over confident?”

“Yes,” Abby Griffin answered from behind him. 

“Shit,” Clarke muttered, her voice barely audible. “She came.” 

Abby hugged Clarke tightly and Bellamy watched Clarke’s reaction curiously. She wasn’t thrilled with it, her arms barely hanging on to her mother and her face pained. There wasn’t any relief in their reunion. He wondered what the estrangement was. Abby moved to hug Raven, who was still a little green, but at least she was standing upright. 

“Welcome to the family!” Abby told her brightly. 

Raven gave a weak grin and Clarke rolled her eyes. This was actually kind of great. Even if he wasn’t sure how he felt about Clarke Griffin, her family drama was going to keep him entertained for a while and Bellamy was looking forward to finding out all gossip. 

\--

The hike from the Portal to the colony was spectacular. Birds flew through a bright sky dotted by fluffy white clouds, the air smelled good and moved through her lungs easily. In 2149 breathing could feel like chewing crunchy food, but here it was effortless, soft, she wondered if she was actually feeling her body heal from the years of damage done by noxious air. 

Her mother didn’t walk with them. She was riding in a truck that went a different direction back to the colony. 

“They’re cutting across the valley because there’s an easy path for the rovers,” Bellamy Blake explained. “We take everyone on foot through this way.” He pointed to the mass of jungle in front of them. “It’s faster.”

“Why not have rovers for everyone?” Raven asked as she slipped on her sunglasses, the color finally returning to her face. 

“We only have 10 rovers, we’d need them all to carry the entire 100 person pilgrimage back and those rovers are out doing other work,” he answered. “But most people won’t get to be OTG for a few weeks and this walk helps the wanderlust and curiosity.” 

“OTG?” Clarke tilted her head as she asked. 

“Out of the gates.” Bellamy put his arm out in front of a kid rushing away from his parents. “Slow down, dude, you’re gonna get eaten by something if you don’t walk with your family.” 

The kid’s eyes got wide and he backtracked quickly. Raven snorted and Clarke smiled. Bellamy wasn’t fazed at all. 

“Do people get eaten a lot?” Clarke asked. 

Bellamy shrugged. “It happens.”

When they’d made it to the colony gates, Clarke tried to hide her look of awe. The gates rose 30 feet in the air, the fence was almost that high, made of huge logs horizontally lined against perpendicular steel beams. It made the colony entrance look like a fortress. 

“I’m impressed,” Raven started. “But aren’t there dinosaurs that are taller than that?”

Bellamy waved his hand, again unfazed. “Eh.” 

Clarke couldn’t tell if this was an act or if he was really this unaffected by everything. She hoped it was just an act because he was cute and if he was like this all the time, he’d be very boring. Not that one thing had to do with the other but an attractive guy who was supremely chill and unimpressed all the time was usually a douchebag. 

“There’s sonic landmines, the fence can be electrified along the steel beams if needed.” He gestured to a wire Clarke hadn’t noticed before, stringing from one steel beam to the next, hidden in the logs. “Plus dinosaurs are aren’t fans of fire so we use that sometimes.” 

“Do a lot of them come here? Like is my sleep gonna be interrupted by growling or people shooting at a T-Rex?” Raven asked. 

Bellamy shook his head. “They chose this place because it was out of the way, we get some grazers but there aren’t any migratory paths right around here. It’s pretty quiet.” 

“Thank god.” Clarke looked pointedly at Raven. “She’s awful when you wake her up in the middle of the night.” 

Raven pushed against her arm and rolled her eyes. “Rude.” 

Through the gate there was an open air market, tons of vendors selling food, goods, and people meandering. Beyond the market, there were buildings that looked like they could have come from 2149. Clarke recognized Medical with it’s big red cross on the glass doors. Then a more military looking building, two stories, lots of windows, people dressed in uniforms of cargo pants and green tops going in and out. But all the people from the pilgrimage were being directed towards the building to the right of the market. It wasn’t like the others, it looked like an octogonal log cabin up on stilts. There was a wide balcony around it and on that balcony was Thelonious Jaha. 

“Citizens of 2149, welcome to Terra Nova,” he said. “I’m Chancellor Jaha and I’m so happy to have you all here. You, me, we’re the best of the best.”

Raven turned to Clarke and made a face. “I can see he hasn’t learned any humility.” 

Clarke shushed her, but managed to miss much of what Jaha was saying because a soldier had come rushing up to Bellamy Blake and he was whispering to him. Bellamy’s entire stance changed, from relaxed to rigid, and she noticed the crease of his brow deepen. 

“Shit,” Raven breathed, causing Clarke to turn from spying on Bellamy’s conversation. 

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear what he just said?” Raven asked, softly. “He said they’re cracking down on scam marriages. Wells didn’t...you don’t think Wells didn’t come to meet us because he’s in trouble, do you?”

Clarke shook her head, but she couldn’t deny the shiver of anxiety that ran through her. 

“I’m sure he’s fine. And we’ll talk about it later, not here...in the open,” she whispered. 

“You guys look like you’re as bored of the Chancellor’s speeches as I am.” Bellamy was suddenly next to Clarke and she tried not to startle at his appearance. “If you want to ditch early, I’ll take you to your house now.” 

Clarke took one last look at still droning on Jaha and nodded to Bellamy before they both followed him through the crowd as discreetly as possible. 

They walked past the market, Medical, the Armory (the military building, Bellamy told them), and a school house. The buildings lining the wide gravel path from there on out were houses. Kids were running around, people going to and fro, it felt like a neighborhood Clarke had only read about in books. 

“Here we are,” Bellamy said, gesturing to a house that looked much larger than their tiny apartment in 2149. “This is a three bedroom model so someone really likes you.” 

Raven held up her hand for a high five without taking her eyes off the house in front of them. Clarke felt herself smile as she smacked her hand. 

“It’s huge!” Raven said as she ran through the door. 

“I’ll catch you two later,” Bellamy cut in before Clarke could follow Raven. 

“Oh, right, uh,” Clarke stuttered a little, unsure what to say because the way the sun was shining above him had her smiling dumbly at him. “I guess, later.” 

“Tomorrow probably,” Bellamy replied, he looked down the street and stiffened like he did earlier. “I teach the survival class so don’t be late. I hate it when people are late.” 

“Lieutenant!” a man in a uniform called from down the street. Bellamy nodded at him.

“Wait, you’re military?” she asked, shocked. “I didn’t...I assumed…”

“Story for another time,” he said, before waving and walking towards the guy calling for him. 

Raven took that moment to pop out of the door and grab Clarke’s hand to drag her into the house. 

“Flirt with loverboy later, and preferably where the good and upright citizens of Terra Nova can’t see you since my boyfriend’s dad will probably feed us to a carnotaurus if we are found out as fake married.”

“I wasn’t flirting.” Clarke made a face. “If I was, I was doing it badly and surely they don’t feed people to,” she paused. “What did you say he was gonna feed us to?”

“A carnotaurus. It’s like a tyrannosaurus rex but meaner. Didn’t you read the pamphlet?” 

“I’ve been studying for my boards and reading up on all the weird ass hybrid medicine they do here like sticking giant prehistoric leeches on people,” Clarke said, dumping her bag on the floor, the very nice tile floor, to be exact. 

“Ew, they do that?” Raven asked.

“There was a whole other pamphlet,” Clarke answered, absently, looking around at the house. “This place is at least five times the size of our apartment at home.”

“We are home,” Raven said, putting her arm around Clarke. 

They both looked at each other, smiled wide, and squealed in delight. 

“Which room do you want?” Clarke asked, peeking around Raven and seeing bedrooms off of the main living area. “Or should we sleep together to keep suspicions low?” 

“I’ve never in my life had my own room, we’re getting our own fucking rooms,” Raven said. 

“Plus you snore,” Clarke added, dodging Raven’s fist that was heading for her shoulder. 

“Jerk.” 

“Hey,” Clarke said, softer. “Are you nervous?”

“No,” Raven shot back. 

Clarke gave her a serious look and Raven turned away, throwing her bag on the bed in one of the rooms. 

“Maybe,” she said without looking at Clarke. 

“Wells loves you, he wanted you to come, he even thought this outlandish plan of ours was a good idea.” Clarke walked to the room and leaned against the door frame. “He wants you here. Your grand gesture is working. Everything will be back to normal soon.” 

“Hopefully,” Raven said, flashing Clarke a nervous smile. 

\--

Bellamy leaned against the steel pylon of the fence annoyed. He could wait here for another twenty minutes hoping Octavia lifted the loose log and slipped back into the colony or he could see if there was a free rover and take it out to find her. It was the fourth time this month she’d gone missing like this. After the second incident, he’d ask a few guys he trusted to keep an eye out for her and Miller said he saw her leave the colony through this spot. It was in the back corner, behind a building used for storage, some of the teenagers used it to sneak out. At least it was shady, shielding him from the high sun’s heat. 

“Jesus Christ,” Octavia said as she slipped through the hole in the fence. 

“You didn’t show up to work...Again.” Bellamy crossed his arms and pushed off the pylon. 

“Stop having Miller check on me,” Octavia groaned. “I’m an adult.” 

“Plenty of adults are irresponsible and need to be checked on,” Bellamy said. “Where were you?”

“Doesn’t matter. I’m just a little late for work anyway, I’m going there now,” she tried. 

“You’re four hours late for work, Mrs. Crane thought you were sick.”

“I do feel like I’m coming down with something.” Octavia gave an exaggerated cough into her arm. 

“Stop.” 

“No.” Octavia narrowed her eyes at him.

“Abby Griffin was asking questions about you today, why do you insist on calling attention to yourself by doing this shit?”

“Just tell that nosy cow the truth! What are they gonna do? Send me back?” Octavia rolled her eyes. “Portal only goes one way so who the fuck cares how you got me here?”

“I care,” Bellamy lowered his voice and spoke sternly. “We have to live here, it’s a small community, I've spent three years building a career, and my boss is asking me to investigate scam marriages and flush people out who are coming here illegally so I care if people find out. You should care too.”

“I have to go to work,” Octavia said, blowing him off and walking away. 

Bellamy let out a heavy sigh and scrubbed at his face. Fuck this day off. 

 

\--

Clarke and Raven were lounging on their couches. They had two of them. Two! Couches! 

They’d unpacked all their things and sorted out sleeping arrangements. (Deciding on sleeping in separate bedrooms with the excuse of Raven snoring if it ever came up.) After that they’d walked around the colony. It took about an hour to see most of the highlights and walk the perimeter to get their bearings. They saw the agriculture fields, a playground, a ballfield, and rows upon rows of science buildings, along with all the other homes scattered about. They’d even seen a brontosaurus having a snack far beyond the fence.

Thankfully Clarke had avoided her mother. She’d have to deal with her at work in a few days but she was perfectly happy to pretend her mom didn’t live here, in this small community of 1000 people. 

A sharp knock on the door startled both Clarke and Raven from their spots. 

“It’s me!” Wells’ voice was muffled from the other side of the door and Raven’s grin could’ve blinded a lesser person. 

“Go on,” Clarke said.

As soon as she’d opened the door, Raven pulled Wells into the house, slammed the door behind him and then just kind of stood there, Clarke couldn’t see her face but she could see Wells’ face. It was intense, Clarke looked down, not wanting to interrupt their moment. 

“God, you’re beautiful,” Wells said. 

“So are you,” Raven replied, breathless.

And then they were kissing and Clarke was elated, but also felt like she was witnessing something she shouldn’t be. She considered slipping into her room before they seemed to remember she was there. Wells greeted her, rushing to hug her.

He whispered, “Thank you,” into her hair as he held her tightly. 

“It was her kooky idea, I just made a joke about marrying her. She’s the mastermind,” Clarke explained when they pulled back. 

“I prefer evil genius,” Raven chimed in. 

“That too,” Clarke said. 

Wells brought dinner so they did some basic catching up over the course of the meal. Mostly though, Clarke felt really good about the choices they’d made to get here. Working with her mom every day was worth it when she saw the way Wells and Raven looked at each other, the way they touched each other, mindlessly rubbing elbows at the dinner table or Wells leaning over to kiss Raven’s forehead. 

“How long do we need to keep up this ruse?” Clarke finally asked when they hit a lull in conversation. 

“My dad has sort of become obsessed with people committing fraud like this.” 

“Why? When we talked the last time the portal opened, you didn’t mention this,” Raven pointed out. “Would have been good information to have.” 

“There was a couple that killed each other.” 

“Shit,” Clarke whispered, shocked. 

“They came on the last pilgrimage, a scam marriage, the woman was a lottery winner, the husband paid her to get a pass here as her partner. They fought one night, a month ago, and he stabbed her, she had a gun, no one knows where she got it, but she shot him before she bled out.” Wells looked off, pausing and swallowing before starting again, “If I’d known, I might have come up with some way to stall you two for the next pilgrimage, just until the hoopla died down, but I didn’t have time. As it was, I planned to be there this morning but I had to fix an emergency at Outpost Alpha, that’s why I sent Bellamy. I hope he wasn’t too grumpy.”

Raven snorted. “Clarke likes him. We should start a pool now over how long it’ll take them to bang.” 

“Shut up,” Clarke snapped. “He’s good looking but he seems too cool for school and I’m not into that unaffected hot bad boy with the sunglasses thing.” 

Wells was fighting a smile and Clarke pouted. 

“I say we wait a few months. Then you two can get your divorce and you can ask Bellamy out. He’s a total nerd, by the way.” Wells took a drink. “You’re exactly his type too, Jesus, I should have thought this through.” 

“Maybe we should tell him about this little plot.” As soon as she said it, Clarke felt her cheeks flush. 

She saw the way Wells and Raven were getting along so well and she wanted that. Clarke missed the feeling of being loved and cherished. Her last girlfriend was flighty and cold but Clarke was ready to date again. She’d finished med school and was finally ready to get back out there...but that would have to wait because of this little arrangement...or maybe it wouldn’t.

“I don’t think we should put him in that position,” Wells said. “He’s one of the people that’s supposed to be investigating fraud cases. I don’t think he’d rat us out but I don’t want to make his life harder than it is, you know? He doesn’t want to be doing that job and if we told him-”

“That’s too messy,” Raven cut in. “You’re right.” 

“Of course,” Clarke agreed, trying not to let her disappointment show on her face. 

“Three months, then we’ll have a big fight, I think maybe the market would be the best place, right?” Raven suggested. “We’ll scream and yell and really have it out, then we’ll get divorced and you can ask Bellamy out and-”

“And you can move in with me,” Wells interrupted Raven with the goofiest smile Clarke had ever seen. 

“Sounds perfect,” Raven said, before leaning in to kiss Wells. 

Clarke was reminded again that this was a good choice. Even with this fraud curveball, this was a good decision. 

“Alright lovebirds,” Clarke said. “I’m going to bed. Don’t be too disgusting, the walls are thin.” 

They didn’t even stop kissing, just waved a hand at her to let her know they heard her. She was thrilled for them but hopefully this behavior came down a notch, or Clarke was in for an awkward few months of third wheeling it. 

\--

When Octavia came home from work she slammed the door so loud it woke Bellamy from his nap on the couch. He tried to ignore her but she threw her bag down, kicked off her boots hard, so they hit the door, she was purposefully banging around in the kitchen, so he gave up. 

“This is all very mature,” he said, sitting up and resting his chin on the back of the couch to watch her. He could see her slamming cupboards. 

“I thought we had some beansprouts in the fridge.” Octavia’s hand was on her hip and she would have looked menacing if she was turning her look on anyone else but her big brother. 

“You ate them last night.” 

“It’s your day off, why didn’t you go get some more?”

“You went to work four hours late, why didn’t you get some before you went to work?” Bellamy asked, annoyed. 

Octavia glared. “I’m moving out.” 

Bellamy scoffed. He’d had this conversation before. “No.” 

“I’m an adult. I’m moving out,” she said sharply. 

“You have to have someone to move in with and you have to be reliable at your job before you can move out, you know this.” 

“I have someone and I’m getting a new job.” 

“Who?” Bellamy asked, skeptically. “And where?”

“None of your goddamn business.” 

Bellamy put his face in his hands. Teenagers were the actual worst. 

“Fine,” he said, lifting his head. “When you’ve been at whatever new job you’ve got for a month, let me know.” 

“I’m an adult. You can’t trap me here in this house!” Octavia screeched. 

“That’s not what I’m doing!” he shot back. “These aren’t my rules, the Chancellor set them for kids aging out of their family home.”

“They’re stupid and you’re stupid for listening to him.” 

‘And we’re back to mature name calling.” 

Bellamy was tired of this argument that happened almost weekly, always the same steps. He wasn’t going to do it tonight. . 

“I’m going out,” he said, before hightailing it out of the house. 

It wasn’t hot like earlier in the day. It was dusk and the air smelled sweet. A breeze cooled his irritation and he could feel himself relax as he took a lap around the perimeter of the colony. As he came up the path he noticed Clarke Griffin sitting on a bench on the side of her house. He told himself to keep walking, to not even wave. She probably wouldn’t notice him. And she’d probably want to talk about stupid shit like the size of the moon or the fact that here you could actually see the moon. Or maybe she’d be annoyed and go inside to sit with her wife. 

But Bellamy stopped anyway. 

“Is the house not big enough for the both of you?” he asked, trying to be witty but feeling instantly awkward. 

Clarke was startled at first, causing Bellamy to fear he’d interrupted her somehow, but a wide grin slowly spread across her face and he was dumbstruck. She was beautiful. 

This was such a bad idea. 

“I just like being outside here,” she answered, patting the spot next to her on the bench. He hesitated and she smiled again. “I suppose you’ll remind me that’s normal, too, hm?” 

Bellamy couldn’t help but laugh at her jab. Her lightness convinced him to sit. 

“It hasn’t been hot enough yet, when it’s 102 and the humidity hits 95%, you’ll remember inside is just as nice and has air conditioning.” 

“Probably. When will that happen? It’s spring, isn’t it?” she asked.

“It’s March and it gets nasty in July, you’ve got some time to acclimate.” 

“At least there’s that,” Clarke said with a shrug. “So you’re a lieutenant who teaches survival classes, huh?” 

She wasn’t looking at him and he wondered if he was imagining her being nervous. Her legs shook a little, causing the bench to vibrate barely. Her eyes were on the horizon, but that could be chalked up to there being an actual horizon to look at, as opposed to the future where none was visible. 

“I was a lottery winner, not recruited like you, so I took the job they offered me,” he answered. 

“That explains why I don’t get a military vibe off you.”

“I have a vibe?” he asked, scooting back to rest his back against the wall of the house. 

The physical act of moving away from her would clear his head of the ridiculous notion that they were flirting. She was married. 

“Yeah,” she said, glancing at him quickly with a quirked eyebrow and bright eyes. “At first I thought it was unaffected dick, but I’m starting to get more awkward nerd.”

Bellamy felt his cheeks heat up. He scoffed. “Well, I do have a masters in library science.” 

Clarke gasped and turned to him, her eyes wide and her mouth open and shocked. “You’re a librarian! My vibe wasn’t wrong. You’re the biggest nerd of them all!” 

“Laugh it up,” he defended, unable to keep himself from smiling. “Turns out they don’t need librarians here.” 

“So the survival course,” she said. “You like teaching?”

“I’d hoped I’d get a teaching job, that seemed like the best fit considering the options of jobs here, but there weren’t any positions open when I got here and they needed more guns. So I started at the bottom, worked my way up and a couple of years ago I suggested this course. It’s only a few days out of the year, but it’s my favorite few days.” 

“You suggested it? What a dork.” But there was no malice in her words. Her face was practically glowing with the new information. 

“There was an incident, some farmers got lost while scouting for new land shares, they almost died from their lack of survival skills, so I proposed the course. It’s standard now, half the participants think it’s pointless, but I feel a little better, I hope it’s helping people.” 

Her face grew softer. “I’m sure it is.”

“Maybe,” he added, ducking his head. 

“So,” she said. “I’ve never met a librarian under 50, does the Dewey Decimal System turn you on?”

He laughed, caught off guard by her forwardness. “The fact that you know what it’s called is pretty hot.”

“I spent the last decade spending all my free time in libraries. My med school library had a study room in the back that no one ever used, except people would sneak back there to have sex. One time Raven opened the door and-” Clarke stopped and Bellamy gulped. 

At the mention of her wife, Clarke clammed up.

They’d definitely been flirting, or he’d been too flirty. It was probably just him. But her face looked a little pale. He cleared his throat and stood up and Clarke’s bright smile was replaced with a grimace. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow morning,” he offered. 

Clarke said nothing, just ran for the sliding door on the back of the house. 

Bellamy closed his eyes and cringed when she was out of sight. He was mortified.

She was married.

After class tomorrow, he was going to make it a point to avoid her. At least until this little crush went away. It was the only thing he could do. 

\--

Clarke should have gone to bed. But she slipped out the back door when she heard Wells and Raven move to Raven’s bedroom, she wasn’t tired and they weren’t quiet, she thought being outside would be better. 

And it was. 

That was the problem. 

Bellamy Blake was not an unaffected dick. He was not too cool for school. He was a librarian and he volunteered to teach a class that he’d probably written. Clarke could tell he was concerned about people’s safety. He was humble about it too, god, he didn’t even know what a good person he was. And she couldn’t stop thinking about him in a button down with the sleeves rolled up, clearing books out of that study room back at the med school library where people used to fuck on Saturday nights. 

All of this was bad, but it got worse when she saw the note Raven left her. 

Wells said there’s a piece of equipment that no one has been able to fix in the lab. I’ll take that survival course next week. Try to keep the flirting to a minimum, you’re somebody’s wife.  
R

 

Clarke threw her head back and cursed. What if she wasn’t able to stop flirting with him?

It was fine. She could just avoid him. 

When Clarke made her way to the area where the class met, she was relieved to see there were at least 40 other people. Bellamy wasn’t even there when she walked up, but one of the soldiers that spoke to him yesterday was. 

People milled about, making small talk, sharing stories, guessing what might be included in the class. Clarke was surprised to see young kids mixed in with the adults. Whole families were there, ready to learn. 

Finally, she saw Bellamy across the way, he was coming out of the Chancellor’s office, rushing down the stairs two at a time, but he didn’t jog over to them. Instead he walked with a purpose. He was dressed in a uniform, the military cargo pants, an armored jacket, a gun was strapped to his thigh. Clarke never understood the appeal of a military type until this exact moment. Yesterday, a t-shirt, jeans, and sunglasses was a good look on him, today he looked even better. 

This was definitely a problem. 

“Alright, we’re going to the edge of the colony today, not OTG, but we’ll be close to it, keep your kids with you at all times. Let’s move out,” he said to the group. 

Everyone listened and Clarke fell in line, following the crowd as they followed Bellamy. 

It ended up being easier than she thought to avoid making eye contact. It was almost like he didn’t want to look at her. That was a blow to her ego until she remembered that even if he was interested, to him, she was off limits in the most severe way. She brushed it off well enough when she started to really listen during class. She learned which plants were poisonous, which were edible, how to make a fire, and there was even a disgusting bit where Bellamy showed everyone which insects could be eaten. Clarke tried not to stare enamoured at the way he entertained the kids in the group with the bugs. 

There were two other soldiers helping Bellamy with his class. She learned the one from yesterday was Miller. He and Bellamy were obviously good friends, the way they bantered made it clear. The other was Nakamura, he was a bit older but he was happy to help the families, especially. Clarke bet he had a family of his own here in the colony. 

When the class wound down, Nakamura and Miller led the way and Bellamy hung back. Clarke debated saying hi, it felt weird, she knew him, it would be rude not to at least acknowledge that they knew each other. There was nothing that crossed the line of her being married (still a good plan though she really regretted it when she saw the way he licked his lips when teasing the kids about eating bugs.) 

“Hey,” she said, after everyone had started back and Bellamy knelt down packing his stuff.. “Your class is really good, not the least bit boring like a lot of orientations are.”

He gave her a short nod before looking back down at the backpack. 

“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Clarke turned to leave, sure she’d made a fool of herself. 

“You don’t have to come tomorrow,” Bellamy said, standing up and putting the bag on his back. 

Clarke tilted her head confused. “There’s one more day of this class isn’t there? Did I do something wrong?”

Bellamy finally relaxed. He shook his head. “No, tomorrow is just basic first aid. I’d assume all those years of medical school have you pretty versed in that, so unless you want to teach it, and you can if you want, I didn’t get to sleep in yesterday so I wouldn’t say no, you don’t have to come.”

 

“You really like to sleep in, you’re not letting that go, huh?” Clarke asked, trying not to smile. 

“Sleeping in is the mark of a modern and successful society. It’s classist too, but you bet your ass I’m gonna do it when I’ve got the chance.” 

They started to walk back and Clarke tried to remind herself to chill. She was making a friend. Nothing more. For the moment. Or the next three months to be specific. 

“When does your class cover dinosaurs?” Clarke asked and Bellamy raised an eyebrow. “I’ve been here like 36 hours and have only seen one in the sky and one in the distance, I thought there’d be more.”

“You’re onto something here, maybe they aren’t even here. The government’s been lying about this prehistoric shit. You’re just the person to blow this wide.” 

Clarke rolled her eyes as Bellamy stopped at a fork in the path. 

“You want to see some dinosaurs, huh?”

Clarke snorted. “Well, not like the kind that could eat me or anything.” He gave her a look that made her stomach flutter, a crooked smile and mischievous eyes.

“There’s a joke there that I’m not going to make,” Bellamy said quickly, his words reminded her that he knew there was a line and he wasn’t going to cross it. 

She tried not to blush. She wanted to be his friend but maybe they were just going to be these kinds of friends. The kind where everything is a dirty joke and flirting is just par for the course. 

He gestured with his chin off to the left. They walked along the perimeter of the colony until there was a wide clearing on the other side of the fence. He stopped, put two fingers in his mouth, and whistled. Then he pointed to the treeline in the distance. 

Suddenly, a birdlike dinosaur with bright feathers popped out of the trees and came running at them. It was so quick that she actually jumped behind him, nervous. He turned back to her with a wicked smile and whistled again. A second dinosaur, the same kind, came running. 

“They look like ostriches,” Clarke said, still standing a little ways behind him. 

“They’re Ornithomimus.” He pointed at the first dinosaur. “That's Chaucer.” He pointed at the second. “That's Wilhelmina.” 

Clarke laughed and Bellamy gave her a stern look. 

“Where's,” he started to say before a third dinosaur who was slightly smaller than the other two meandered out of the trees. “This one is Bob.”

“Bob?” Clarke asked, trying not to laugh again.

Bellamy shrugged. “Octavia named him.” 

“Who’s-” Clarke started to ask, realizing for the first time that Bellamy could be seeing someone. That would make this whole situation so much more embarrassing but at least she could really set it in her mind that she had to start treating him like a friend, not someone she wanted to date. 

“My sister,” Bellamy answered quickly. “She was 15, she thought it was a good name at the time. She’d probably put her hands on her hips and claim she had nothing to do with it if you asked her today. But that’s just her default position for everything lately.” 

“You have a sister? And she’s here?” Clarke asked, trying to remind herself to be his friend. Friend. They were friends. Nothing else. 

“You could ask your mom about it,” he snapped. 

Clarke frowned. “I try to avoid speaking to her. I’d much rather talk to you. Or one of the dinosaurs that could eat me. Or my ex. Or any of your exes.” 

Bellamy’s brow furrowed and Clarke did her best not to cringe. He looked away, keeping his eyes on the dinosaurs in the field. Bob trotted over to the fence and Bellamy leaned over to scratch behind the feathers on his head. 

“You don’t like my mom either,” Clarke suggested, coming closer to where he was standing, drawn to the spot by her curiosity over the Ornithomimus. “I’d bet the only person in Terra Nova that does like her is Thelonius Jaha, depending on the day of course, and Jackson. You know him? Lanky guy? He’s been with my mom for years.” 

“Yeah, I know Jackson, he’s a terrible card player.” 

Bellamy wasn’t looking at her, somehow the mention of his sister and her mother caused him to shut down. 

“My mom came here after my dad died, Thelonious begged her to come help on this project. If it weren’t for Raven, I’m not sure I would have come here, I might have stayed away just to avoid her.”

“That’s pretty fucking privileged, guess you’d live in one of those domes with the massive air filters instead?” His tone was harsh.

“I guess I could have,” Clarke admitted. “But I was hoping you’d realize that my difficult relationship with my mother runs deep and ugly, not that I was a spoiled rich kid. I’d happily have lived in my tiny apartment.” 

“Except your wife wanted to come here?” Bellamy asked, softening ever so slightly. 

“Uh, yeah, yeah, Raven knew this would be a good place for her...her career.”

They had a cover story but Clarke didn’t want to lie to him like that. Of course, she was lying to him by default about her marriage. But giving the mushy story they’d cooked up about falling in love and coming here felt wrong. Suggesting they came for Raven’s career felt like a half lie. Not entirely untrue, Raven was going to do well here, better than she had a chance at back in 2149, but that wasn’t the whole truth. 

“So you came even though you hated your mom,” Bellamy said. “Because your wife asked you to.” 

“Yep.” Clarke nodded enthusiastically, grateful at the way he’d happened to phrase it. 

“Your mom hates me and I hate her. I can’t even remember why at this point, she’s never liked me.” 

Bellamy’s shoulders loosened and Clarke felt a thrill at the sign. 

“You mentioned the Chancellor…do you,” he paused, pursing his lips together. 

“Do I know that occasionally they bang?” Clarke filled in for him. “Yeah, the first time they did that was after Wells’ mother died, god, we were like seven, I think. Wells caught them and wouldn’t tell me what he saw but he was mad at me for a week by proxy.” 

“Shit, that’s some good gossip, Wells never told me that.” Bellamy perked up now.

“I’m not sure there was ever a time she was faithful to my dad, but Thelonious was a recurring theme,” Clarke explained. 

“What a goddamn mess,” he muttered. 

“For sure, and that’s just the tip of the Abby Griffin iceberg. See why the future, even with all it’s perils, seemed like a better option?” Clarke shrugged. “I went to med school because she paid for it and I tried to hate it. I would have done literally anything else, be the polar opposite of a doctor, just to piss her off. But as I went on I realized I actually loved being a doctor.” 

“How dare you?” Bellamy teased. 

Clarke nodded and bit her lip to keep from grinning wide. “I know, it was one of those pivotal coming of age moments like in films. But if anyone asks, I definitely hate being a doctor because my mother is one and she’s awful.” 

He laughed and Clarke loved the sound of it, mentally noting it as her new favorite thing. 

The dinosaurs in the field started to retreat back into the treeline and Clarke pouted. “I should have pet one when they were right here.” 

“Pull your lower lip in.” Bellamy reached out his hand towards or her face but stopped suddenly. “Now you know they’re here, you can check on them whenever you have time.” 

Clarke tore her eyes away from him and looked back to the field. Being his friend was not working. 

In the distance she saw something. There was rustling in the bushes and then a smaller creature sped through the grass. It looked like it was carrying something.

“What is that?” Clarke asked, concerned. 

Bellamy was walking away, but he stopped to see what she was talking about. 

“I don’t know, looks like one of the egg stealers, I forget the species. Ask Wells, it’s more his wheelhouse,” he answered, before tapping her shoulder and tilting his head towards the path back home. 

“But it’s got an egg, doesn’t it?” She felt panic rise in her. 

“Circle of life and all that,” Bellamy said without thought. 

Clarke looked around her on the ground, spotted a rock the size of a softball, picked it up and threw it through the fence, hitting the creature square on the head. 

“Gotcha!” she exclaimed. 

“What the fuck was that for?” 

He was not as impressed with Clarke as she was impressed with herself. 

“I stopped it from stealing the egg! Isn’t that Wilhelmina's egg?”

“I don’t even know if Wilhelmina is actually the female,” Bellamy responded, annoyed. “What are you gonna do now? The egg is probably damaged.”

“Come on, let’s go put it back.”

“That’s a terrible idea.” He shook his head and started to walk away. 

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” she said, dipping her head to get under the fence and through it. 

“Clarke, don’t,” he said, but he followed her through the fence. 

She headed for the egg, feeling a rush of excitement pulsing through her. The creature she’d hit with a rock was gone, scurried off already she assumed, and she found the egg a little dented but not cracked. Clarke bent down to gently pick it up, it was the size of a bowling ball and just as heavy. Behind her she could hear Bellamy huffing, not from the run, but definitely from irritation. 

“I think it’s fine,” she said when she felt him look over her at the egg. 

“I’ve been here three years and this is the most idiotic thing I’ve ever watched someone do,” he grumbled. 

“You’re helping,” Clarke said, bracing herself to carefully lift the egg and walk it towards the nest it was taken from. 

“I’m not helping.” Bellamy held his hands up in front of him. 

“Then go back to the fence.” 

“You’re a civilian outside the fence, there’d be paperwork if something happened to you,” he said flatly. 

“Thanks for helping, friend,” she said with a wink. 

It wasn’t a long walk, maybe 10 yards, but Clarke held the egg delicately and took small steps, Bellamy snarking the way behind her. When she made it to the nest, the three formerly friendly dinosaurs came barreling towards her. 

“Shit, shit, shit,” she heard Bellamy shout behind her. 

Clarke couldn’t look at him, she was focused on putting the egg back in the nest. She gently placed it there, falling backwards to get away from the dinosaurs coming at her. One of them, Chaucer maybe, forcefully kicked the egg out of the nest and another rushed at her, it’s mouth swooping down towards her face. She threw up her hands to shield herself, but instead, she heard a sound like a whoosh of air. Clarke felt the ground vibrate and moved her arms to see the three Ornithomimus on the ground. 

“Oh my god, did you kill them?” she shrieked. 

“Jesus, no,” he said incredulous, Bellamy held out his hand and she took it, letting him help her up. “It’s a sonic gun, it stuns them. Tomorrow they’ll be pissed at me, but they’ll be fine.” 

“Bring them a treat,” she said, brushing herself off. “Let’s get this egg to Wells, he’ll figure something out.” 

“What? No, leave the egg here.” Bellamy glanced back at the dinosaurs on the ground. “Circle of life. They don’t want it in the nest anymore, circle of life, Griffin, let it go.” 

“There were entirely too many 100 year old Disney references in that sentence.” She picked up the egg gingerly. “Wells can fix this. He’s gonna put that fancy bio degree to good use.” 

“See if I ever do anything nice for you again, troublemaker,” Bellamy said, before following her. 

“You like me,” she said confidently. Because after all of this she was sure. At least he was her friend.

\--

 

It took forever to make it to Wells’ lab because Clarke insisted on walking slowly as to not jostle the egg. Every other minute he thought to himself how absurd this situation was. The egg was damaged but Clarke was acting like Wells would be able to save it and then what? They’d have a pet Ornithomimus? He’d have to build a pen and he’d have to figure out how to feed it, he already had to take care of Octavia and Clarke was just adding another responsibility to his to do list. 

When they finally walked through the sliding doors of the lab, Bellamy saw Wells talking to Raven. He’d never seen Wells smile like that and it was a little disconcerting. 

“Thank god, you’re both here,” Clarke said, speeding up her steps. 

Wells and Raven looked appropriately confused at Clarke and her precious cargo. 

“Wells, fix this egg.” 

He wondered if Clarke was used to people listening to her demands and complying. If this was any indication, he figured she expected help without question. 

“What is this?” Wells asked, he looked at Clarke first and then Bellamy. 

“It’s an Ornithomimus egg, your pal Clarke thought she was being a hero,” Bellamy answered and Clarke glared at him. 

Clarke took over, telling the rest of the story, Bellamy’s interest waned when he caught a glimpse of Octavia outside, walking quickly. It could have been anything, but her posture made him suspicious. 

“Have fun figuring this out,” Bellamy said, absently, before leaving to catch Octavia. 

By the time he got outside, Octavia was already down the street, looking no less suspicious but he didn’t have time to get to her before a shot was fired and a man was running across the market towards the fence. Bellamy drew his weapon and gestured for people to get to safety.

“Sixer!” Miller shouted.

People were scattering and taking cover, several other soldiers had come out, the man ran faster, Bellamy took off after him, but he was so far ahead. Another soldier tried to stop him but the man easily pushed him aside and made it beyond the fence. 

Bellamy kept running and he knew Miller was behind him but once they’d left the gate, the man made it to a rover. The vehicle stopped long enough for him to get in and then headed back towards where Bellamy and Miller stopped. It came close enough for Bellamy to see the woman driving wave at him. 

“Anya and her little grounder group,” Miller grunted. 

“What did he take?” 

“No idea. Something small enough to fit in his pocket.” Miller shrugged but Bellamy kept his eyes on the rover as it disappeared over the horizon. 

“What was my sister doing?” Bellamy asked. 

“Fuck if I know, I can ask Bryan if you want,” Miller said. 

“Nah,” Bellamy sighed heavily, before turning back to the colony. “Let’s go see what that guy stole.” 

When they walked back into the colony, they were greeted with a disgruntled Abby Griffin and only mildly less irritated Chancellor Jaha. 

“He took eight vials of the strongest antibiotic we have,” Dr. Griffin practically shouted at Bellamy like this was all somehow his fault. 

“How’d he even get in?” Jaha asked sharply. 

“Your fence is meant to keep dinosaurs out, Chancellor, you know that,” Bellamy shot back. 

“I’m tired of these ruffians, these Sixers, coming in and stealing things, syphoning power, they’ve made it almost impossible for the mining crews to work.” Jaha’s tone was harsh. 

“It’s broad daylight, they usually come at night, why during the middle of the day?” Bellamy asked. “What’s the security system for the meds?”

“There’s a keypad during the day, but at night we lock it up. If someone needs something, they need the doctor on call to open it,” Abby explained. 

“Sounds like we need another gun in the hospital,” Jaha said, crossing his arms with a finality that made Bellamy want to roll his eyes. 

“I don’t think that’s going to help anything, sir,” he argued. 

“Great, tomorrow you can man the first shift in there and gather information about what happened,” Jaha said. 

Bellamy sighed.

“Surely it’s not too much of an inconvenience for you to do your job, Lieutenant Blake,” Dr. Griffin added. 

He did his best not to shoot his mouth off at that moment. It wouldn’t do any good and depending on the day, insulting Abby Griffin could make Jaha very angry. 

The next morning he walked into the hospital grumpy. Not only did his stance reflect his mood, he found that when questioning people about crimes, it put them on edge, made people less likely to lie, or at least it pushed them off their games and they were more likely to lie badly so he could see through them. 

He walked past the check in desk, the waiting area, back to the rows of cabinets along the far wall where he knew the drugs were kept. One of the cabinets was slightly askew, so he started with that one. Checking the hinges on the doors, looking at the other drugs that were near where the stolen antibiotics should be. 

“Uh, was I supposed to cover your class this morning?” Clarke asked, startling him.

“Miller’s teaching it,” he said, going back to the shelves. “Can you open this for me? Harder to see what’s going on from behind the glass.”

“It’s my first day, remember?” she said. “I can get Jackson though.” 

“Yeah,” Bellamy said, keeping his eyes on the hinges of the glass door. 

Clarke came back quickly with Jackson in tow. Bellamy gestured to the cabinet with a tilt of his head and Jackson entered a code on the keypad causing it to ding, then the door popped open. 

“Thanks, man.” 

“No problem, I’ll come back and talk to you about what I saw yesterday in a few, I’ve got a patient who is pissed about how late I’m running,” Jackson explained, sheepishly. “Clarke can keep you company.”

Bellamy tried not to bristle. How was he supposed to get anything done when she was standing there looking adorable in her white doctor’s coat?

“What’s the street value on the vials that were taken, you think?” he asked her. 

Clarke snorted and shook her head. “It’s antibiotics. No one is using that to get high. You guys have a big drug problem here?”

“Not even a little,” Bellamy admitted. “Some teenagers sneak off to the woods and make moonshine because they aren’t allowed in the bar but nobody that comes through that portal has any substance abuse issues. Thank god.” 

“Who was that guy anyway? I heard someone call him a ‘Sixer.’ What is that?”

“There’s a group, there were 65 of them, they came on sixth pilgrimage.”

“Hence the Sixer name?” Clarke interrupted him. 

Bellamy nodded. “They call themselves Grounders. You’ll hear them referred to as both by people here. Anyway, they didn’t like some of the rules of the colony. Anya hated the way the farmers were looking for more land. She never thought we needed more.” 

“Anya?” 

“She’s the leader. They stole weapons and a rover, we never know where they’re staying, they’re nomads.” 

Bellamy turned quickly as the cabinet door dinged three times and then locked again. He tried to grab the door before it closed, but missed it. He groaned. 

“Why would anyone leave the colony? It’s got everything a person could want,” Clarke said, obviously unconcerned with the cabinet locking. 

Bellamy put his fist on the glass and looked inside annoyed that he’d let the door shut before he could get a closer look. If Clarke hadn’t been talking to him this wouldn’t have happened. 

“Can you get Jackson again? Or another doctor with access?” 

“Yeah, the head nurse probably has the keycode and a card, too,” she said easily. 

“Wait,” Bellamy said, something clicking in his head. “You need a keycode and an employee card?”

“Yep, everyone who works here or who has to come in to certain areas will have an employee badge that functions as a card for the reader, even the janitors. The food people who deliver the meals for the admitted patients, then of course the doctors, nurses, orderlies.” Clarke ticked off on her fingers as she listed the various people with cards. 

“So at night,” Bellamy said, talking out the information. “You’d need an access card or badge, a keycode, and the physical key.” Clarke nodded as he spoke. “But during the day, you’d need just the card and the keycode?”

“Right.” 

“And tons of people have cards?”

“Right again,” Clarke said, holding up her own card on a lanyard around her neck. “And really, if you could catch the door before it shut, you wouldn’t even need the keycode...you know, if you had swift fingers and it was busy enough that no one noticed you.”

“When is food dropped off?” he asked, connecting dots in his head.

“I don’t know, it’s my first day, remember?” she reminded him with a shrug. “The only thing I have is the card.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Bellamy said, not bothering to look at Clarke. “I have to go.”

“Don’t you want me to get someone to open the cabinet again?” he heard Clarke shout after him as he bolted out of the hospital. 

He ran home as fast as he could and was relieved to see Octavia’s boots at the door. She was home. But the relief was quickly replaced with anger. Bellamy slid open Octavia’s door and found her sitting at her desk, applying her makeup for the day. 

“Where do you go when you leave the colony?” he demanded. 

Octavia didn’t stop her task, she didn’t even look at him. “None of your business.” 

“Actually, it is my business. Especially if you’re helping steal things for Anya.” 

He had to give it to her, she only slightly flinched. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed. 

“Anya?” she scoffed. “Why would I spend any free time with her? She’s awful and takes smokey eye to a dangerous level.” 

“Octavia,” he ground out. “Your new job in food service, it gets you a card that can get you into the back area at the hospital.” 

“How’d you know where my new job was?” she asked, offended.

“I looked it up when you told me you got a new job, all that shit is logged in a computer for payroll.” He started to accept that she had definitely helped in the little operation that went down yesterday and she was trying to distract him. 

“I wasn’t even at the hospital yesterday,” she tried. 

“There are logs, you know? I can find out easily who brought the meals for the patients.” 

“You don’t want to know, big brother,” Octavia said, finally turning to him. 

“It was antibiotics, for sick people, they just got a whole new case of that drug when the portal opened a few days ago. Who cares who stole it or why?”

Bellamy’s temper flared again. “People care, O, and you should too! This is the kind of shit that gets people banished!” 

“That wouldn’t be that bad.” Octavia turned back to her mirror and picked up her eyeliner. 

“If you do this again, I can’t protect you,” Bellamy said, not knowing what else he could say to get through to her.

He saw her reflection in the mirror, saw the way she swallowed, he hoped she knew this was serious. 

“The guy,” she said, softly. “He got away without being hurt, right?”

“I swear to god if this is about a guy, Octavia,” he started, but she clamped down. Standing up quickly and brushing past him. 

“I’m gonna be late for work,” she said, dismissively, before grabbing her bag and boots and leaving Bellamy fuming, alone in the house. 

\--

Clarke spent her morning shadowing Jackson. Normally, this would make her restless, but she glimpsed her mother throughout the day and remembered that things could always be worse. She could be stuck observing her mother’s patients. 

She kept hoping Bellamy would come back. Since she wasn’t really doing any work, she thought it’d be fun to talk to him. It was embarrassing how eager she was to open up to him and how much of it she’d done the day before. But she couldn’t even find the energy to be upset about it. There were plenty of other things to be annoyed about, like her mother. 

“Go ahead and take a break, Clarke, when you come back from lunch, you can help Jackson with some of the easier patients he has this afternoon.” Her tone was patronizing and Clarke had to bite her tongue to keep from starting a fight about her own competence. 

Clarke headed for the door and saw Bellamy poring over a clipboard. Delighted, she didn’t think before grabbing at his bicep to gain his attention like a kid, tugging at a parent’s arm.

“When did you get back?” she asked. 

Bellamy looked at her hand on his arm and furrowed his brow but she didn’t let go. 

“I’ve been here all morning talking to witnesses,” he said flatly. 

Clarke scoffed. “You ran out of here pretty quickly, I didn’t see you come back in, where’d you go?”

“Nowhere.” He rolled his shoulders back and schooled his face, he was definitely lying, but Clarke didn’t care. “Shouldn’t you be seeing patients or doing doctor things?”

“After a completely uneventful morning of my mother ignoring my skills, she’s sending me to lunch, let’s go,” she said, tugging on his arm every so slightly, finally letting go after the gesture.

Bellamy raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you want to go with your wife?”

“Raven’s at the motor pool all day. She said not to even expect her for dinner. The place is that much of a mess and she’s decided she can fix every mechanical problem before the end of the week so it’s you, my only friend in the colony, or it’s table for one, sad person with no company.” She pouted and gave her best puppy dog eyes. 

“Wells is your friend,” he said, but he’d already put down his clipboard. She knew she had him. 

“He’s out at some station today. Doing science-y things.” 

“I thought doctors were into science-y things,” he added. 

“Eh, I’m better at stopping people from bleeding, stopping noses from running, I’m like so good at giving shots. Oh man, I got an A in shot giving.” Clarke started to walk towards the door and to her glee, Bellamy followed her. 

“Gonna call BS on ‘shot giving’ being a whole class, you can’t fool me, Dr. Griffin- wait, aren’t people going to get confused because you and your mom are both Dr. Griffin?”

“I hadn’t even thought of that, maybe I should come up with something? Dr. C, Dr. G?” 

They walked down the steps and into the market, Clarke was starving but she was going to let Bellamy lead the way to the food since she didn’t have any idea what was good. 

“You could go by Griffin-Reyes, or old school and be Dr. Reyes.”

“Oh,” Clarke said, the thought having never crossed her mind for obvious reasons. Of course, Bellamy didn’t know that. “I guess I could, I never thought about it.” 

“You don’t have to figure it out today,” Bellamy said, stopping at a stand with a giant wok filled with rice and vegetables. 

He ordered two servings and paid the vendor. 

“You bought my lunch, now I’m gonna owe you,” Clarke said, taking the bowl. 

“That’s why I did it,” he said, with a click of his tongue, heading to a bench to sit. 

They sat in silence for a few minutes, eating, Clarke trying very hard not to make a big deal of how good the food was. In the future it was lots of protein packs, protein smoothies, who knows what they were made of really, she’d seen enough apocalyptic films to never consider the question long. 

“Can you stop orgasming over the rice? I’m trying to eat,” Bellamy said, signaling Clarke hadn’t actually kept herself under control. 

“I can’t, it’s so delicious! It’s bright and it’s savory and it’s-” 

Bellamy cut her off, “This is why I don’t make friends with new people. Always going on about the moon and the food and the fluffy clouds and begging me to show them dinosaurs.” 

“Shut up,” she said, elbowing him. “Wanna hear about the egg?”

“No.” He looked away but Clarke didn’t care. 

“I need you to do me a favor.” 

“You owe me a favor. You don’t get to call in favors.” 

“As my friend,” Clarke started but Bellamy shook his head so quickly he almost dropped his food. 

“Stop, nope. I’m not your friend,” he said and Clarke giggled at his vehement denial. 

“Gail needs a pen.” 

“Who the fuck is Gail?” 

“The Ornithomimus, from the egg, she hatched last night,” Clarke answered and Bellamy rolled his eyes. “She’s small and Wells is keeping her in a makeshift baby dinosaur NICU, but she’s gonna pull through. So we need to build her a pen.” 

“I knew this was going to happen. You ruin my days off.” 

“You just met me,” Clarke countered. 

“Great, then we’re not close enough friends for you to rope me into your ridiculous project of raising a dinosaur,” he said, pointing a finger at her. 

“I can help with the pen, but she’s gonna need it by next week, Wells said she’ll have outgrown the lab space by then.” Clarke smiled at him like it was a done deal. 

Bellamy looked away from her again, putting a bite of rice into his mouth. When he’d finished chewing he sighed heavily. “Gail is a dumb name.”

“No, it’s not!” she defended. 

“Yeah, it is.” Bellamy fixed his eyes on the cluster of people ahead of them. “I guess tomorrow after work we’ll start on a pen.”

Clarke squealed and Bellamy cringed, but she was pretty sure she saw him suppressing a smile. 

“Your yard or mine?” she asked. 

“Not mine,” he added quickly. “Yours for sure.” 

“Perfect,” she said, smiling through the rest of her lunch. 

\--

 

The next afternoon Bellamy gathered the necessary wood, fasteners, and his ax, to begin chopping pieces to appropriate size. It was hot and before long he’d worked up a sweat so disgusting that his shirt sticking to him made it harder to work so he took it off.  
He worked for an hour before he felt the prickling sensation that someone was watching him. 

“Are you just going to watch me or are you going to help?” he asked, without turning around. 

He saw out of his periphery Clarke startle. When she came closer she scoffed. 

“You’re doing such a good job, though.” She winked at him and he gave her a side eye. “Do you even need my help?”

Bellamy put the ax down, exchanging it for his water. He gulped that down and then poured the remaining over his head to cool himself off. Scrubbing his face and then putting his arms in front of him, his hands together, he stretched, he’d probably be sore tomorrow from the labor. This time when he looked back to Clarke she looked away, suddenly. He puffed up in pride and rolled his shoulders again, putting his chest on full display. It was a dick move but if someone wanted to appreciate him, he was very open to that happening. 

“What is that?” Clarke asked, he jumped when he felt her hand on his hip. 

“Sorry, I thought it was a scar, but…” she tried to explain, her embarrassment at being caught ogling him replaced by curiosity. 

Bellamy took a step back and pulled his pants up a little so they covered the spot. 

“Nothing.” He turned back to his project but before he could pick up the ax again she closed the distance he’d put between them. 

“Come on, is it one of those vaccines gone bad from the 20s? They left gnarly scars on people, I read about it,” Clarke explained, if he didn’t know she was looking at the now covered spot on his hip, he’d have been really concerned about where her gaze was sitting.

“No, it’s nothing like that,” he said, hoping it would get her to back off. 

“Oh,” she said, disappointed. 

Her mouth formed a pout and Bellamy spent half a second debating before he spit it out, “It’s a stupid initiation thing.” 

Clarke raised her eyebrows, curiosity piqued again. 

“When we get here, and we are assigned to the military section, obviously those of us who weren’t military before we came, we’re trained, and at the end of training, some idiot, at some point decided everyone should get a tattoo.”

Clarke started to grin now, it was mischievous and god, so hot. He looked away. 

“And yours is hidden because…?”

He wasn’t willing to get that in depth. 

“Let’s build the pen, please.” He picked up the ax and handed her a shovel. 

Begrudgingly, she took the shovel. “What is it? It looked circular.” 

“So what I need you to do is to loosen up the soil over there.” He pointed to the patch of yard just ahead of them that he’d marked with chalk, ignoring her question. “I’m going to put posts in along the chalk line every couple of feet so just make sure the ground isn’t too hard so I can easily install the posts.”

“There’s a dirty joke on the tip of my tongue,” she teased and he rolled his eyes. 

“Fine, it’s an echioceras, but now that I’ve told you that, you owe me silence while we work,” he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his arm. 

He caught her eyes on his hip again and he groaned internally. If his skin wasn’t already tight from the heat, it would be because of the way she was looking at him. Were married people like that? Was he imagining it because he was nursing a crush?

“Is everyone’s the same?”

“I told you so you would shut up about it,” he grumbled. 

“If you wanted me to agree to terms you should have laid them out before you told me,” she said, smugly. 

“Look, they don’t even need my help,” Bellamy heard Wells say as he and Raven arrived. 

“Clarke is zero help, so please, help me, either of you, both of you, whatever.” 

He was relieved they were here. Maybe Clarke would dial down her dazzling smiles and coquettish remarks. 

“I’ve got to rest,” Raven said, sitting down on the bench sideways and lifting her braced leg onto the bench. “But you look like you’re doing fine.”

“Did you work too hard?” Clarke asked her wife, concerned. 

Raven brushed her off, not even responding. 

“Wells, you better give them the rundown before you forget,” Raven said. 

“Right, uh, you guys are going to have to feed Gail, make sure she gets enough exercise-”

“Wait a minute, I did not sign up for parenting a dinosaur,” Bellamy interrupted. 

Wells looked at Raven, then Clarke, and then back to Bellamy. 

“Look man, I’m going to be doing the reviews for the science teams this month.” 

Bellamy threw his head back. “For fuck’s sake, you’re going to be gone all month!” 

“I’ll be in and out,” he countered. 

“I’ll be here the whole time,” Clarke said with a wide, excited smile. 

Bellamy gave her a look. Raven covered a laugh with a cough and Wells at least had the sense to look apologetic. 

“Clarke can do most of it, you’re just back up,” Wells said. 

“Why can’t she be back up?” Bellamy’s chin nodded to Raven. 

“I’m going out with Wells to do quick mechanical checks on all the outposts. They all need a yearly diagnostic.” 

Clarke looked to Raven and he wasn’t sure what he saw on Clarke’s face but he was sure that she didn’t know that Raven was going to be gone that much. He filed it away for later. 

“Okay, so she eats meat, I’ve got some dry food in the lab, one of the scientists developed it as an alternative to see if we could study-” Wells explained. 

“I don’t care, man,” Bellamy said, scrubbing at his face. 

“Right, so fed three times a day, entertained and exercised twice a day, you two can do that, right?” 

Clarke was beaming. “This is gonna be fun!”

“I’m not sure you know how to have fun,” Bellamy said, but her smile didn’t falter at all. 

This was not avoiding Clarke. This meant he would be spending more time with Clarke which wasn’t going to help his crush.


	2. Chapter 2

Clarke finally got to see a patient. All her own. She read over the chart, she knew it was just a routine pediatric visit, but she was prepared and excited. She decided to have patients call her Dr. G and the nine year old seemed relieved when she introduced herself.

“Mom, you said the appointment was with Dr. Griffin.” The kid had no grasp of an inside voice. “She’s mean.”

“Dorothy!” her mom quietly scolded, her cheeks blushing.

“What? I’m just telling the truth,” Dorothy said, crossing her arms while Clarke tried to keep a straight face.

“Dr. Griffin is my mom.” Clarke lowered her voice to a stage whisper and Dorothy’s eyes got wide. “But don’t worry, I’m not a huge fan of her’s either.”

“She’s been my doctor since I was like five and she can’t remember my name,” Dorothy said.

“We had a dog named Rocket when I was a kid and sometimes she’d call me Rocket instead of Clarke.”

Dorothy shook her head and scoffed. Then she put her hand around her mouth as though that could block the sound from her mother’s ears. “She calls me Danica, that’s my dumb sister’s name! She’s a baby for pete’s sake!”

“Dorothy!” her mother repeated.

Dorothy shrugged. “Anyway, I’m nine now so do I have to have shots or something?”

“You do,” Clarke replied. “Just a quick one, a vaccine booster for Sincyllic Fever to make sure you don’t get sick, it doesn’t hurt too much, but I’m going to make sure the rest of you is growing fine, too. Any issues?”

“My mom says my attitude is an issue,” Dorothy said, seriously, and Clarke tried not to laugh as Dorothy’s mother covered her face with a hand, clearly embarrassed.

\--

That afternoon, Clarke waited patiently by the pen that Bellamy had built in her yard last week. She claimed she had helped but Bellamy glared at her every time she mentioned it.

“Have you seen my sunglasses?” Raven called, from inside the house.

“Check the bowl on the kitchen island!” Clarke said, standing up to lean in the sliding back door and point to the spot.

At first she was completely thrown off guard by the idea that Raven would be going with Wells on this trip to all the outposts. She was still happy for them. She didn’t regret her decision to come to Terra Nova or to marry Raven under the guise of getting her here. But she was definitely starting to feel left out. Clarke knew that she was doomed to third wheeling it for a few more months until they could stage their big breakup but Raven had been swamped at work, they really needed her expertise (Clarke was constantly baffled that they hadn’t just hired her from the gazillion times she’d submitted her résumé. They clearly needed her here.) And when Raven wasn’t busy at work, her and Wells were inseparable (in the privacy of Clarke and Raven’s living room, of course). This left Clarke to sit with the loving couple awkwardly or spend time by herself or hang out with Bellamy.

Spending time with Bellamy was, of course, the most difficult because she really liked him but she couldn’t say that she really liked him. It was even more awkward after seeing him shirtless last week while he built the pen for Gail. After that he’d moved from crush to guy starring in a couple of sex dreams which were then used as fantasies for the late night hours when she couldn’t sleep. Flashes of him above her, sliding down her, his curls tickling her skin, calloused hands making her shiver, lips on hers taking her breath away.

The dreams involved the library study room she’d mentioned to him when he’d told her he was a librarian. Always in a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, he would be collecting books, and then he’d toss the books in favor of collecting her into his arms, it devolved from there, sex on the table, sex on the floor, sex against the frosted glass walls of the study room, it occurred to her that she really needed to get laid if this was what a glimpse at a bare chest was doing to her but it wasn’t exactly possible while she was playing this married thing with Raven so she took care of herself and tried not to stare when she hung out with Bellamy.

“What about my bra with the pink straps?”

Clarke looked at the line to her left where she’d hung the washing and grabbed the bra. She threw it at Raven in the living room.

“Thank you! Do I need anything else?” Raven asked.

“I’m sure you’re set now, when did Wells says he was bringing Gail over?”

“He’s driving over to pick me up and he’ll have Gail with him, is Bellamy coming?” Raven asked, finally joining Clarke in the yard in front of the pen.

“Haven’t seen him today so I don’t know, but maybe,” Clarke said, hopefully.

Raven sighed. “Maybe he’ll come.”

But he didn’t, instead, when Wells showed up, so did little Dorothy. She and her friends trailing behind the rover, excited to see the baby Ornithomimus that Clarke would be taking care of until they could release her back into the wild.

The bird-like dinosaur was barely the size of a lapdog, but once Wells put Gail into the pen, she started to run.

“Do you think she doesn’t like being trapped in such a small space?” Clarke asked Wells, but he shook his head.

“She had smaller in the lab,” he said.

“Looks like she’s happy, I can even see her smile,” Dorothy said, as all the kids in her posse crowded around the fence of the pen, some of them even climbing onto the fence.

“Get off my fence, little punks,” Bellamy boomed, scaring the kids, causing all but Dorothy to scatter.

Bellamy stared her down but she stared right back. “I know you’re a big softie, you sang me the Spider Song when I got stuck in that airvent last year.”

“The Spider Song?” Wells, Raven, and Clarke all said in unison.

“Scram, kid,” he tried again.

Dorothy begrudgingly left, but not before she waved at Clarke. “See you later, Dr. G.”

“What’s the Spider Song?” Raven asked, eagerly.

“Nothing, and that kid is a trouble maker, we don’t need her over here riling up the dinosaur.”

“Her name is Gail,” Clarke corrected.

“I know what her name is, I just think it’s stupid so I didn’t use it,” Bellamy replied, putting his hands on his hips.

Clarke mimicked his stance. “You’re just mad I didn’t consult with you before I named her.”

“Gail is a dumb name, so yeah, I could have come up with a better one,” he said.

“Anyway, here’s the dry food,” Wells interrupted them, grabbing a bag that looked like a 10 pound bag of dog food from the rover. “She’ll eat a scoop a day until she starts to get more feathers, then you’ll need to give her two scoops. Don’t forget she needs lots of exercise, at least twice a day.”

“How do we even do that?” Bellamy asked, concerned now instead of standoffish like before. “Can we teach her to fetch or something?”

“Probably just chase her around a lot, she might fetch, I’ve never seen an Ornithomimus do it but I’ve never watched one this closely from hatching, maybe you can teach her. It’s such a downer that I’ve got to be OTG this month.”

Raven pat Wells’ back. “It’s alright, ba-bud,” she said, almost slipping up.

Clarke felt her stomach drop but Raven recovered quickly and Wells didn’t even flinch.

“We’ve got to go, so have fun with Gail and we’ll see you when we get back,” Wells said, heading to the rover.

Raven leaned over and kissed Clarke on the cheek, probably mostly out of worry that Bellamy had noticed her near miss. Clarke smiled warmly and sent her fake wife on her way.

“Don’t have too much fun without me!”

“You aren’t great at having fun so I can’t make any promises,” Raven said from the front seat of the rover before Wells drove them away.

“Gonna be alright on your own?” Bellamy asked. He was squatting down so he could pet Gail.

“I’m very capable.” She was a little offended that he even asked.

“You don’t seem like a person who is used to being by herself though,” Bellamy offered. He wasn’t looking at her but she could tell he wasn’t teasing now.

“Shut up,” she said, trying to stamp down the feeling in her chest that he was genuinely worried about her. Clarke waited a beat before asking, “Do you want to hang out here tonight?”

He stood up and swung a leg over the fence, twisting his body over it and landing in the pen. Gail started to circle his legs quickly causing him to laugh at her. He looked back to Clarke with a knowing smile.

“How would that look? Your wife rides off for a month and then I stay? The rumor mill will go wild.” Bellamy’s eyes twinkled mischievously.

Playfully, Clarke’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped, she put her hand on her chest and gave an exaggerated gasp. “Stay the night? What kind of scandalous…”

But she stopped. Was he suggesting? Did he? No. Bellamy was just joking. He was a flirt and she couldn’t help but flirt back and he knew about the lines not to cross. Clarke could continue to suffer in silence over how much she wanted Bellamy Blake. But at least tonight she wouldn’t be bored or lonely.

“This is exactly the gossip small town Mayberry would thrive on,” he said.

Clarke rested her forearms on the fence, then rested her chin on her forearms. “I can’t believe that dinosaurs exist and people would talk about us.”

“There are more exciting things to talk about,” he said, gesturing with his chin towards a group of four people awkwardly eating on a patio.

Clarke followed his line of sight and tilted her head. “They look like they all got fired.”

“Nah,” Bellamy said, pointing at a stick behind Clarke. She grabbed it and handed it to him and he tossed it for Gail. “Go get the stick!” he tried, but she continued to circle his legs and pick at the grass.

“Fetch needs more work,” she said when Bellamy’s shoulders slumped. “So, that’s uh, Miller right? Who else?”

“Miller, you know from the class,” he said and Clarke nodded. “Then Bryan, Miller’s boyfriend.”

“Okay,” she said, following along.

“Monty, then Harper.” Bellamy put his back to one of the fence slats and wiggled, scratching his back. The action made Clarke want to laugh but she stopped herself. “So Miller, Monty, and Harper all came through on the Seventh Pilgrimage.”

“Same as you.”

Bellamy nodded. “Right. So Harper had a crush on Jasper.”

  
“Who’s that?” Clarke asked.

“He was Monty’s best friend but he died.”

“Did he get eaten?”

“You’re really worried about getting eaten, like you should see a doctor about that fear,” Bellamy said and Clarke blushed.

“Whatever, keep talking,” Clarke said.

“So Monty and Miller though, they had a connection. Definitely nursing mutual attractions.”

Clarke tried not to consider how much she hoped she and Bellamy were nursing mutual attractions.

“So the Eighth Pilgrimage rolls around and Bryan comes through.”

“And Miller liked him better?” Clarke was really concerned now.

“No,” Bellamy said. “Well yes, but it’s not like that. You’re getting ahead of my story. Hush.”

Clarke rolled her eyes at him but couldn’t help the small grin she felt on her face.

“Bryan surprised Miller. They’d been dating before, in Chicago, but Miller came as part of the military and they didn’t give him the option to come with any family. So Bryan worked his ass off and got hired, he’s our chicken guy.”

“What?” she asked, amused.

“The scientists that get hired, they have to have a research topic. Bryan’s was something about chickens in prehistoric settings. I don’t remember. It was long and a little boring. But he’s really fuckin’ smart and since he came we can have omelets so I do not complain about his science. I thank Miller every time I have a vegetable frittata that he vouched for him.”

“What do you mean, vouched for him?” Clarke asked, her wheels turning. Raven applied to Terra Nova at every chance she had. Why did Bryan get to come but not Raven?

“If you know someone, you can, uh, sponsor them? Kind of?” Bellamy tried to explain. “When their résumé comes through you can route it up a different chain if you know them. Obviously you don’t want to just vouch for anyone, but a lot of people do it when they’re lucky enough to have a family member or friend who can fill a position here. If you weren’t your mother’s daughter, if you were her niece or her protégé, she could vouch for you.”

Clarke filed that away. She needed to talk to Wells about Raven. Surely he had tried to vouch for her, she hoped.

“Can I get back to the gossip now?” Bellamy asked.

“Sorry, carry on with the juicy details.” Clarke looked back towards the foursome eating, they looked uncomfortable as ever.

“Monty was a little heartbroken over Bryan showing up. He didn’t say anything, but I knew. Then last year while Monty and Harper were working at Outpost Alpha on some computer stuff, Harper made her move.”

Clarke felt herself giggle. She was becoming just as bad as Bellamy about gossip but she loved hearing the stories and she loved that everyone was getting someone to love them. She never considered herself a romantic but she felt like one in this moment. Maybe it was just Bellamy’s telling of it.

“I know,” he said as if to agree with her happiness over Harper and Monty. “But there’s still a lot of lingering awkwardness. I’ve never been able to tell if something happened between Miller and Monty, but they always seem to gravitate towards one another. So the fact that they insist on all hanging out together is definitely newsworthy.”

“You know what’s funny?” Clarke asked, keeping her eyes on the group ahead.

Bellamy hummed to answer her question, his focus on them as well.

“Bryan looks like you, but white.”

He snorted. “I know right? Can't believe Miller was pining for Monty when he could have been pining for me, I mean look at me!”

“Agreed,” Clarke said, pressing her lips together so she didn’t smile wider at him.

\--

A week later, after Clarke and Bellamy had done evening Gail duty (she still wasn’t fetching the stick but Bellamy kept hoping and trying), Clarke and Bellamy went to work making omelets. He’d gotten eggs from Bryan and Clarke had chopped a ton of veggies to go in the omelets and just as they’d both finished their creations and sat down to eat them, there was a knock at the door.

“Mom, Chancellor,” Clarke said in greeting, half hiding behind her door, blocking them from entering or seeing inside the house.

Partially because she didn’t want to talk to her mother and partially because she was keenly aware of how it looked that Bellamy was at her house having dinner. Again. They’d done this almost every night since Raven and Wells had left. Bellamy wasn’t wrong. Clarke wasn’t great at being alone.

“Can we come in?” Abby started to step forward into the space but Clarke didn’t move. “We thought you might be lonely, you know, since Raven is gone.”

“Raven’s been gone a week, this is the first time you’re checking on me,” Clarke said.

“We’ve been really busy,” Chancellor Jaha added with a gentle smile.

“Okay so you’re back to sleeping together,” Clarke said, flatly. “Thanks for the relationship update, I’m good, I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Mom, I’ll see you...whenever I see you, Chancellor.”

“Clarke!” her mother scolded while Jaha grimaced.

“I’m good, thanks for checking on me.” Clarke tried to shut the door but Abby stopped her.

“Let us in, we brought dinner,” she tried again.

“I’m already eating, it’s probably cold now though, so thanks for that.”

“How about when Raven gets back?” Abby asked. “We can have a big family dinner, like we used to, with you and Raven and Wells, Thelonious makes a mean fish taco.”

“Big family dinners like when? Before Thelonious’ wife died or before Dad died? Which kind?” Clarke’s sharp retort was met with a cough from Bellamy causing both her mother and the Chancellor to look through the sliver of open entry way.

“Who’s that?”

“No one, Mom,” Clarke said firmly while trying to shut the door again, this time though, Abby pushed through her and into the house.

Clarke huffed as Thelonious followed her mother in and she was sure she felt a headache coming on.

“Lieutenant Blake,” Abby said. “What are you doing here?”

“I brought eggs. For dinner,” Bellamy answered, easily, barely giving her mother the time of day.

Clarke hadn’t really seen them interact since that day at the Portal. She knew he hated her mother but a few minutes ago they’d been practically dancing around the kitchen making their food together. He was mostly at ease with Clarke, now he was different. Not tense, but that air of arrogant asshole she remembered from their first meeting was back. He obviously put that on for her mother.

“Sir,” he offered, respectfully, to the Chancellor.

“So, am I the pot or the kettle?” Abby asked Bellamy directly.

“I’m not really sure I understand what you’re getting at but I only catch every third or fourth word of your’s because I don’t want to listen,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

“Get out,” Clarke demanded, knowing exactly what her mother was implying.

“You can’t be on your soapbox about me when you’re down here in the mud,” Abby continued and Clarke felt her skin tighten and her hands ball into fists.

“How dare you suggest that I’m cheating on my wife!” Clarke took care to enunciate every word to drive home her anger.

“Whoa,” she heard Bellamy say, throwing off his unaffected stance, seeming to understand what was going on now.

“Shut up,” Clarke snapped at him.

“I’m not like you. At all. I won’t ever be like you. You treated my father like garbage.” Her muscles were starting to strain from the way she’d tensed up.

“Clarke,” Thelonious tried to cut in but both women glared at him.

“I keep my vows. No matter what. I don’t break promises, you were supposed to love Dad, you were supposed to respect him. Instead,” Clarke said, her hands shaking slightly from the rage. “You, you, you-”

She couldn’t finish the sentence. She just stood there in her living room seething.

“I think it’s best if you go,” Bellamy said after a few silent, tense moments.

Clarke hadn’t moved from her spot and her mother seemed to not want to wait any longer for whatever Clarke had to say. Abby and Thelonious left and Clarke almost collapsed. Bellamy guided her to the sofa, got her some water, and then started to clean up the dishes from dinner.

She closed her eyes and rested her head on the sofa back and tried to pull herself together. Clarke heard Bellamy doing the dishes and sunk further into the couch. She took a deep breath and stood up.

“I handled the dishes,” Bellamy said, turning off the water and walking right past her to sit on the other couch. “Come back and sit down or go to bed. I’ll check on Gail and then head home.”

“You could stay, it would piss my mom off and I’m a huge fan of doing that,” Clarke said.

Bellamy fought a smile. “Me too, but I gotta be home for Octavia.”

“Right.” Clarke felt her cheeks flush and looked away. “I’m mortified you saw that.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything if you want,” he said, picking up a book from the end table and flipping through it.

“Tell me something about your mom. Was she awful?”

It could be considered an invasive question, Bellamy didn’t actually say much about himself. He talked about other people, he listened, and he asked questions himself, but she hoped maybe he’d answer this. Selfishly, she wanted someone who understood the hardship of having a complicated relationship with one’s mother.

Bellamy stopped flipping pages in the book. She could see he was trying to decide what to say, how to answer.

“I loved my mom a lot. She was like a mythic hero, a rebel with a heart, except in the end,” he paused, licking his lips and swallowing, like he might say something he regretted. “In the end she was just a woman who made some dumb decisions. She played those decisions into something else, she made her choices into statements of morality, but they weren’t. They were just excuses. Maybe your mom is a little like that.”

Bellamy was looking at her now with a gentleness to him. He gave her a little one sided shrug, his face seeming to make the same movement.

“Maybe,” Clarke agreed.

\--

  
Sheets of rain slammed the building where Bellamy’s office was. It was getting late but he didn’t want to walk home in the downpour so his desk seemed like good enough escape for a few more minutes. Dark clouds had dotted the sky all day, when he was on his lunch break the air felt so heavy with water he remembered what it used to be like to breathe in the future.

His thoughts trailed to Clarke. The argument he’d witnessed last week between her and her mother was brutal, but he couldn’t help but be amazed at the way she’d held her ground. Clarke was amazing though. That was less a problem now than it was before. Sure, he was still attracted to her, but now he really liked being her friend. She’d become a bright spot to look forward to in his days. He could ignore his attraction to Clarke and be her friend and he really liked being her friend. Bellamy really liked her.

“Lieutenant.” Monroe was standing at his door, she was sopping wet. “Dr. Griffin said she got lucky and there’s a surgery she was called in for? She’ll be working overnight.”

“And I needed this information because?” Bellamy asked, plainly.

“Oh, not that Dr. Griffin. Her daughter,” Monroe corrected, quickly.

Bellamy snorted. “I think Clarke is going by Dr. G, for future reference.”

Monroe smiled sheepishly. “She said you’re on Gail duty. I don’t know what that means but she said I had to tell you as soon as I got back in.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes. How did Clarke keeping getting good things like surgeries she could assist on and he kept getting the bad things like building pens for dinosaurs and dinosaur duty in the near hurricane?

“Thanks, Monroe. Go dry off, you’re dripping everywhere,” he said, giving her a small smile.

The rain was so unyielding that by the time he’d made it to Gail’s pen, he was soaked to the bone. His raincoat seemed pointless, his boots felt like they were filling with water, and he couldn’t even see Gail in her space. Though the rain was coming down so hard he couldn’t see but a few feet in front of him. This was the first time it had rained since the little Ornithomimus had hatched and Bellamy felt a stab of guilt that he’d forgotten that she might be panicked. He hoisted himself into the pen, checking in the corners, finding Gail huddled against the corner closest to the house, shaking. Bellamy bent over and picked up the now Golden Retriever sized birdlike dinosaur. She’d grown fast in the last two weeks and Bellamy felt her body shaking further against him.

“I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” Bellamy said, not sure if he was speaking to himself or to the creature that didn’t understand him and probably couldn’t hear him anyway over the rain.

A shock of lightning jetted across the sky and a loud boom of thunder followed almost immediately after. Gail startled in his arms and heavy as she was, he almost dropped her. But it sealed the deal. He maneuvered them both over the fence and started the walk to his house.

Once he’d made it home, he worried about putting Gail down so he carefully placed her in front of his door, then barely opened the door, he stood with his feet almost under her so he’d have warning if she bolted. The plan was to guide her into the house if she got scared again but first, he wanted to get rid of his wet clothes. He stripped down to his pants and boots, leaving all his wet gear in a pile on the patio chair next to the door, then he opened the door wider and nudged Gail’s middle barely with his foot. She was still petrified, so he used his hands to scoot her over the threshold and then closed the door.

It took him a few minutes to Gail proof the living room, he might not even need to worry, she was still in the clump of feathers and limbs on the tile by his door. But he was prepared if she started to get comfortable and decided she wanted a bite of Octavia’s candles. He put those up high.

After changing out of his wet clothes he found some food in the kitchen for himself, and a note from Octavia that said she’d be home late. Then he got some towels and laid them on the couch, making a spot for Gail. She wouldn’t come when he called (she did that sometimes when they were having her exercise time) but he picked her up, dried her off, and she settled into the couch once he put her there.

“I thought she was a strictly an outside pet,” Octavia said, giving him a look when she came home around midnight.

“Shut up,” was all he could muster.

The thunder and rain went on all night but Bellamy didn’t fall asleep until it was dying down around the time the sun rose.

\--

As Clarke walked home, the sky was a cascade of pinks and oranges as the sun lazily climbed into the sky. She was tired but she'd spent all night assisting in a surgery and her mother wasn't even there. Jackson needed help and Clarke happened to be there at the right time so she was able to scrub in.

She was happy to help but now she wanted to feed Gail and climb into her bed and sleep until noon, at least. But when she got home, Gail was missing. Clarke felt her stomach drop and she didn’t think twice before running across the colony to Bellamy’s house.

It was early still but she pounded on his door anyway.

“Bellamy! Bellamy, Gail is gone!” she shouted.

But when the door opened, it wasn’t Bellamy, it was a young woman.

“You must be Dr. G.”

“Octavia, right?” Clarke asked, still frantic, feeling out of breath.

Octavia nodded and opened the door wider to reveal the living area. She gestured with her arm to the couch where Bellamy (oh god he was shirtless, as if Clarke hadn’t had enough excitement for the morning) and Gail were sleeping. Gail was half on top of Bellamy, her beak resting near his hip and her body up by his shoulder. Bellamy was almost hanging off the side of the sofa but he snored softly and his face looked relaxed.

“I think your bird peed on the couch,” Octavia said.

“Should I wake him?” Clarke looked to Octavia for guidance.

“He barely fell asleep, the damn dinosaur was thrashing and terrified all night because of the storm. I even heard him singing The Spider Song to her.” Octavia frowned.

“I’ll come back later, then,” Clarke said, trying not to melt at the picture her mind was conjuring of Bellamy singing Gail to sleep. Jesus, she was hopelessly into him.

“Wait,” Clarke stopped the door before Octavia could shut it. “What’s The Spider Song? Dorothy mentioned it, too.”

Octavia scoffed, opening the door wider again. “That little shit.”

Clarke tilted her head, confused, but Octavia shook her head, instead moving on.

“It’s just a song he made up when I was a kid. I was scared of spiders under the floor.”

“Under the floor? Why would you need to worry about spiders under the-” Clarke stopped herself, making the connection. “Oh.”

Octavia looked at something over Clarke’s shoulder and her whole body shifted. It could have been from what Clarke had just brought up. It was probably from that. But Clarke looked behind her anyway so see what Octavia saw. There was nothing so Clarke turned back to Octavia who was biting her lip.

“Anyway, he has the day off so maybe come back and collect your bird around lunch time, bye,” Octavia said, barely breathing between each word.

“Nice meeting you,” Clarke said but the door had already shut in her face.

She walked home, replaying that image of Bellamy singing to Gail to get her to sleep, interlaced occasionally with a new image of a younger Bellamy, comforting his younger sister in a small apartment like Clarke lived in back in 2149. Back where population inspections routinely broke up families.

\--

Someone was at the door and Bellamy was just hoping they’d go away. The knocking was sharp and steady. Bellamy’s face itched and there was a weight on his chest that he didn’t recognize, but opening his eyes to determine what it was seemed too much effort until the screech of a dinosaur reverberated through his body.

He sat up, whatever was on top of him was gone, the screech happened again and the door opened. Clarke was standing at the door, eyes wide and concerned, and Gail was on top of his coffee table, screeching at him.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to come in but,” Clarke started.

“But the sound of a dinosaur jumping from my chest to the coffee table with accompanying sound effects was worrisome, it’s cool,” Bellamy said, scrubbing at his face and giving Gail a shove to get her off the table.

She walked over to Clarke and started nuzzling her hips. Clarke pulled out a few nuggets of dried food from her pocket and opened her hand for Gail to take them.

“Walked home this morning and panicked when I didn’t see her in the pen.”

Clarke was holding back a smile, he closed his eyes tightly to avoid looking at her face. He was her friend. But he was caught off guard by her beauty in that moment. The way her nose was scrunching up was entirely too endearing.

“She was scared,” he said dismissively. “Hope you brought a leash to get her back to the pen.”

Clarke produced a long piece of rope. “Way ahead of you.”

“Since she’s still growing, I’m gonna build an awning for one of the corners of the pen.”

“For what?” she asked, tilting her head.

“For the next time it rains,” he said.

Clarke laughed. “She’s gonna end up here next time it rains.”

“If she’s going in anyone’s house next time it’s raining, it will be yours. I think she peed on the couch.” He stood up to examine a spot on the furthest cushion.

“Should’ve crate trained her,” Clarke said, her eyes twinkling.

\--

“There’s been a guard posted at medical since the theft, nothing new has been taken but we’ve got no leads on who took the antibiotics,” Bellamy explained, his nose itching.

“It’s possible it was a one time thing,” Miller added.

The Chancellor steepled his fingers and kept his focus on the tabletop. “Well, how are we going to stop it from happening again, Lieutenant Blake?”

“Monty Green is working on a rotating keycode that will require a fingerprint and he’s adjusting the cabinet doors to close faster.”

“Alright then, you’re dismissed,” The Chancellor said.

Everyone quickly filed out of the room except for Bellamy. He’d been feeling tired and was moving slow because of it. Just as he got up, he sneezed so hard he almost lost his balance.

“Might go into medical for that, Blake.”

“Yes, sir.”

“After that, I need you to do me a favor,” Jaha said.

Bellamy sniffed, dreading what his afternoon would be like.  
\--

“I’d say you were being a baby but I’m pretty sure I’m sick, too,” Clarke said, taking a drink from a mug. “I hate tea but it’s the best relief for my congestion. Thanks for spreading your germs to me.”

“I’m so glad that you’re the doctor with no patients right now, I love hearing about how this is my fault somehow.” Bellamy frowned. “Anyway, give me something good because I gotta go to Outpost Delta this afternoon.”

“Why?” Clarke asked, suddenly concerned. He shouldn’t have said anything, he knew what was coming.

“No reason.”

“If there was no reason, you’d go home to sleep this off like I’m about to do after you leave,” Clarke said, suspicious.

He considered lying, but he decided to be selfish. It was a three hour ride to Delta and Clarke was good company. And he probably needed a doctor anyway. Bellamy didn’t know what he’d find when he got there.

\--

“So the last contact with Delta was when Wells and Raven pulled up here yesterday?” Clarke asked as they were coming up on the entrance to Outpost Delta, Bellamy nodded.

There was a large metal cage standing up against the trees, a keypad lock and a metal sign that just said DELTA in big letters above it.

“Where’s the rest of it?”

“It’s underground,” he said as he took in the surroundings. “I don’t see Wells’ rover, can you see it?”

“Maybe they left and something was wrong with the radio so they didn’t let us know,” Clarke offered. She didn’t seem sure of her own explanation.

Bellamy considered his options. Outpost Delta hadn’t been in radio contact in a few days and now he couldn’t see the rover, something was definitely off. He parked just outside the gate. Clarke sneezed as she got out and Bellamy cleared his throat, trying not to cough. He knew he was good at his job, he’d seen Clarke be proficient at hers, though he wasn’t sure how she’d do if they came upon some dire medical emergency, but both of them were off their game being sick. He hoped to walk into Delta, talk to some folks, get back in the rover to drive home and crawl into bed.

Clarke sniffed. “I had this ex who used to make fun of the way I sneezed. Said it was like a cartoon sneeze.”

Bellamy laughed, but it turned into that cough he’d held off a moment ago.

“It is a little like that,” he said, when he’d stopped coughing.

“Shut up.”

Her lower lip rolled out and Bellamy hated that. She was very cute and very married. Very married. He repeated to himself again.

Bellamy entered the keycode to the gate and held it open but Clarke didn’t notice. He was about to say something to urge her in when her eyes got wide.

“What’s that?”

“What’s what?” Bellamy asked, reaching for the gun on his hip.

“In the trees.” Clarke pointed to a spot off to the left of the treeline.

Bellamy spotted it immediately and his stomach dropped. He drew his weapon and stepped in front of Clarke but she kept up with him, walking by him to get to the mass of naked flesh.

He heard her suck in air as they got closer but she didn’t scream or even breathe when they got to the spot. There was a mangled body, the face beyond recognition, it looked like something had picked at it. The uniform was shredded.

“There,” Clarke whispered, sounding more calm than he expected her to.

He knelt down by the body, looking around for a moment before examining what used to be a guard.

“The tattoo, your tattoo,” she said, her voice shaky now.

He didn’t want to prescribe any feelings to the way she seemed to hold it together until she saw something that had to do with him. That was just his imagination at work.

On what was left of the man’s left calf, was the echioceras tattoo. Bellamy closed his eyes for a minute, going through everyone he knew, a catalog of the guards under him, his people. He winced when he remembered.

“Atom.” He stood up, shaking his head. “Just a year older than Octavia, they dated for a hot minute, until he-”

Clarke looked at him, her face somber.

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, taking one last look at the body. “We need to get inside.”

“What did this?” she asked, her voice steadier, she’d regained control of herself.

As Bellamy started for the gate, he took Clarke’s hand, it was uncharacteristic, but she didn’t flinch, instead clinging to it tightly.

He didn’t answer her because it could have been anything. He didn’t know. And with no communications coming from the outpost, the body outside, Wells’ rover missing, the hairs on the back of his neck were starting to stand up. Bellamy just needed to get inside and get to the bottom of this so they could go home in one piece.

“And you make fun of me for being afraid of being eaten,” Clarke deadpanned when they were inside the outpost and going down the stairs.

“She’s got jokes, ladies and gentleman.”

Bellamy walked slowly down the stairs, his gun drawn and his other hand holding Clarke’s as she came down behind him. They could find anything in the outpost but he was really trying to avoid thinking about the way her thumb was running across his back and forth, like she was trying to comfort him.

“Anybody home?” he called out, trying to keep his mind on more pressing matters instead of his married friend’s thumb.

“Raven, Wells?” Clarke spoke up from behind him.

At the bottom of the stairs there was a long hallway, he turned to Clarke to give a command but Clarke dropped his hand and breathed a sigh of relief at something over his shoulder.

“You’re here, you’re safe,” he heard her say. as he turned to see Wells standing in the hall.

“Clarke! I thought you’d already left for med school!” Wells said.

Bellamy’s brow drew down. “Why haven’t you radioed to Terra Nova? Your dad sent us because this outpost hasn’t checked in in 36 hours.”

“Terra Nova? I can’t call Terra Nova unless the portal is open,” Wells said with a scoff.

“Clarke, who is this new guy? Did you and what's her name break up? I didn’t want to say anything but I don’t think she’s right for you.” Wells shook his head.

“What’s going on?” Clarke asked, sounding as confused as Bellamy was. “Where’s Raven? Where are the scientists from this outpost?”

Wells shrugged and walked into a room to the left, Clarke followed him and Bellamy checked the hall quickly before following them into the room. It was a lab, lots of microscopes and computers. Raven sat tinkering with a computer.

“Hey baby,” Raven said to Wells, as he leaned down to kiss her.

Bellamy stared in shock. He spared a glance to Clarke who looked more befuddled than horrified.

“What the fuck, Wells?” Bellamy said.

“Oh, sorry,” Wells said, offering Bellamy his hand to shake it. “I’m Wells Jaha, this is my girlfriend Raven Reyes. Clarke, you didn’t tell your new boy toy who Raven was? If you were coming to surprise us, you should have told him.”

“What are you two doing? Bellamy’s here, what, wha-” Clarke stuttered for a minute.

“Wait, you can’t call Terra Nova because you can only do that when the portal is open?” Bellamy asked.

“Yeah, it’s the only way to communicate with the past, when the portal is open,” Wells answered.

“Oh, Terra Nova! Your dad is there, right, babe?” Raven beamed at Wells.

Bellamy started to piece it together.

“We’re at Terra Nova, we live there, I mean this isn’t,” Clarke said, still confused.

“What year is it, you two?” Bellamy asked.

Raven laughed and Wells scoffed again. “2146,” they both said in unison, as if Bellamy was the one acting ridiculous.

Bellamy looked to Clarke. Her mouth was hanging open and her body was tense.

“Amnesia?” she whispered.

“I was gonna go with time travel.”

“That’s your idea?” she asked, incredulous.

“We live 85 million years in the past,” Bellamy snapped. “Amnesia and time travel are pretty equal in probability, all things considered.”

“Sure, all things considered,” she replied, sarcastically. “How do we figure out which?”

Bellamy leaned in closer to Clarke. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me that Wells and Raven used to date. That’s some grade A, varsity level gossip you were holding back. Was it a nasty break up? Are you insanely jealous? Is that why you and Wells never mentioned it? Hell, I’ve never heard Raven mention it.”

“There’s a dead guy outside and two people inside who think they’re three years in the past. Are you fucking kidding me right now?”

“So you don’t bring it up because you’re the jealous type, huh? That’s why you were weird that day when we built the pen and she said she was going with him.”

Clarke snorted. “I’m not jealous!”

“They are practically making out in front of us, you’re not jealous?”

“Can we focus on the more important task at hand?” Clarke asked, sharply.

“Yeah, yeah,” Bellamy said with a deep sigh. “Wells, buddy, you remember when we went fishing last year?”

“Shit, have we met? I feel so rude,” Wells answered.

“He’s not going to remember that if he has amnesia,” Clarke chided.

“I know that,” Bellamy said, annoyed. “He wouldn’t remember it if it hadn’t happened yet either.”

He reached his hand out to Wells. Wells shook it, again. Bellamy grabbed at Wells wrist but Wells pulled away, uncomfortable.

“Sorry, I was just remembering how you got that fish hook stuck in your wrist. You’ve got the scar,” he said, pointing with his chin.

“That’s weird, I don’t remember that but I,” Wells paused, rubbing the spot on his wrist. “I don’t remember this scar.”

Bellamy huffed. “Glad we didn’t put money on that.”

Clarke’s eyebrows went up and the smallest hint of a victorious grin graced her face. They shouldn’t be acting like this. She was right, just a few minutes ago he’d seen the remains of Atom. But this was a truly ridiculous situation. Between the circumstances and his lightheadedness from the cold, he figured his behavior couldn’t be too professional. Thank goodness it was just the four of them.

“Wait,” he started. “Where are the scientists? It can’t just be you two here?”

Raven looked at him, it almost looked like there was a spark there, and then nothing. “We woke up here alone. Not even sure where here is, actually. Where are we?”

“Outpost Delta,” Clarke said, before pinching Bellamy’s arm to get his attention.

“What?”

“Look at this.” Clarke moved some papers next to a microscope.

In big, bold letters that looked quickly scrawled, a paper said INFECTION. She pushed that paper away and under it laid another. MOVES FAST. She slide that paper to the side. HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS. Bellamy gulped. He could see Clarke’s hand shaking but she moved that paper to find another underneath. DON’T FORGET.

“We can fix this, right?” Bellamy felt his face warming up. It could have been the fever from his cold or it could have been whatever infection this was. Everything felt dire now.

Clarke balled her shaky hands into fists then released them. She did it a few times and then started sifting through the papers. “Uh, uh, login to that computer. I need all the research that was happening in this lab.”

“I don’t have a login for these machines,” Bellamy said, feeling himself start to panic.

Clarke sneezed into her arm and he could hear her breathing hard, whether it was from the imaginary ticking clock that now hung over them or from her cold, he wasn’t sure.

“Raven.” Clarke snapped her fingers, not to get her wife’s attention, but more in an act of processing whatever her idea was. “Raven can hack into the machines. You’ve known how to get into networks with more security since grade school, right?”

Raven looked up from the computer she was taking apart. “Yeah, of course, just point me in the direction of the machine.”

  
In a few minutes, Raven had easily logged into the system and found all the master files. Clarke sat at the terminal, scrolling through the files. Bellamy stood over her, an arm on the back of her chair and another on the side of the desk she was sitting at.

Not a good time to smell her hair, but it was nice, floral. He kicked himself at the inappropriateness of it all.

“They were studying gene modification,” Clarke explained, startling Bellamy out of his immoral inner monologue. “Who thought that was a good idea?”

“Probably that guy.” Bellamy nodded to Wells.

“When he remembers what year it is,” Clarke said. “I’m gonna smack him.”

“Good plan.”

Bellamy couldn’t watch Clarke sift through the information, being close to her was not helping the situation so he stepped back. She was getting pinker by the minute, she was sweating, but then again, so was he. Instead he walked around the room. No signs of blood. No signs of struggle. Where had the other scientists gone? Why was Atom outside like that?

“Found it!” Clarke shouted. “Okay so stage one is intermittent memory loss and disorientation.”

“Good news, I’m not feeling either of those things,” he said.

“Me either. And it says the incubation period is just about an hour so if you start getting fuzzy, let me know.”

“Fuzzy beyond the fever we’re both burning up with?” Bellamy grabbed a cloth from the counter and ran it under the facet. She took it gratefully, and wiped her brow.

“It’s your fault we’re sick,” she said, no sting in her words.

“We probably caught it from Gail, that makes it your fault,” he replied before getting a cool rag for himself.

“Who are you people?” Raven asked, suddenly more disoriented than before.

“Wells, what year is it?” Clarke asked.

“2143, Clarke, when did you start wearing your hair like that? I like it,” Wells said, before turning to Raven. “And who is this beautiful lady?”

“That’s making me uncomfortable, how are you holding up?” Bellamy asked Clarke, after making a disgusted face at Wells.

“It’s fine, I have to concentrate.” She shushed him and kept reading. “Stage two is catastrophic memory loss.”

“Clearly where Wells and your wife are hanging out,” Bellamy said, feeling his nose itch. He grabbed a tissue to blow his nose. “What’s stage three?”

Clarke’s finger trailed down the screen as she read but then she stopped. She shook her head once.

“Well?” Bellamy asked again, impatient.

“Catatonia.”

He felt his stomach drop to his feet. “Where are the other scientists?”

“Go check the rest of the outpost. Maybe they went to bed and never woke up,” Clarke said, her voice shaky.

He put a hand on her shoulder, hoping it would comfort her. She kept her eyes on the screen but he saw her look to her wife, still tinkering with the computer parts. Clarke was understandably worried. He was worried. But he couldn’t think about that right now.

Bellamy headed out to search the rest of the outpost. He found the scientists locked up in the sleeping area with a big quarantine sign on the door. The door was locked from the inside, they all looked like they were sleeping, though strapped down to the beds, so he left them alone. Better to find out what was going on than risk more confused people.

When he got back, Clarke was still researching, he pulled up a chair next to her and started to skim the papers next to the microscope. There were blood test readouts, pages of medical information he didn’t understand, and schedules for the outpost.

“Anything?” he asked, gently.

She scrubbed her eyes, it had been a couple hours since they’d started and she looked exhausted. Being sick with the cold, neither of them were feeling great, but at least they hadn’t contracted this strange infection yet.

“It feels like it’s just out of my grasp.” She pulled her hair tie out of her hair, running her fingers through her waves.  
  
“Should we call your mom or call, I dunno, the next science guy under Wells, I think it’s Monty?” Bellamy asked.

“We could,” Clarke said, gathering her hair up on the top of her head in a messy bun. “I don’t know how they can help though, and we shouldn’t bring any more people out here. That’s too risky.”

“RIght, I mean brain damaging amnesia infection, run of the mill cold with accompanying sinus congestion, it’d be cruel to inflict both on people,” he joked.

“We’re not sick.” Clarke’s face was focused now.

Bellamy sniffed, feeling lightheaded again. “Nah, we’re pretty sick. You’re still flushed and,” he put the back of his hand on her forehead. “You’ve got a raging fever.” He moved his hand to his own head. “Me too.”

“No, I don’t think we’re going to get sick, the other infection,” Clarke said, shuffling through the papers. “They were trying to cure Gorman’s.”

“The thing that’s worse than Alzheimer's?” Bellamy asked.

“Yeah, they spliced some stuff together, from what I can tell, and then they planted their cure in a virus. It’s highly contagious but we already have a virus. A cold. The cold is keeping our bodies safe because the cold is blocking the pathogens from getting into our bloodstream.”

“Was any of that in English?” asked, annoyed.

Clarke put a pen her mouth as she dug for the paper she needed in the piles on the desk. “I’m not a virologist.”

“Did you make that up? That’s not a real doctor.”

“If you were still a librarian you could look it up.” Clarke winked at him. “I’m not a virologist but I think that’s what I’m seeing here.”

She pointed at a bunch of lines and circles that looked like something he remembered from chemistry.

“So, will our cold cure them?” Bellamy asked, looking back to Raven and Wells.

Wells was spinning in his chair and Raven was ripping wires out of a computer terminal, at random.

“I hope so,” Clarke said.

\--

Bellamy stood in front of the Chancellor’s desk, his nose still running and his head still swimming, but alive, memory whole and intact.

“The scientists we found were locked in the living quarters to quarantine themselves, Atom had locked them in, misunderstanding the infection. He thought he wasn’t showing symptoms. But then Raven and Wells showed up and he thought they were Sixers. He ended up outside the outpost where he was obviously deep into stage two by that point, probably walked right up to a carnotaurus, from the claw marks we found upon examination.”

“And what about the missing rover?” Chancellor Jaha asked, rubbing his chin.

“One of the scientists was unaccounted for, Dr. Tsing. We assume she entered stage two and took off with the rover. There’s a beacon in it but it’s not in range. I’ve organized a search party,” Bellamy explained.

“Alright, you go home and sleep that cold off,” he said, standing and walking Bellamy to his office door. “Glad you took Clarke. That really worked out for the best.”

“Yes, sir,” Bellamy nodded.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love reading your comments! So many of you loved Terra Nova (me too!) and I really love hearing that you loved the fic without knowing the source material! I'm thrilled!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PHEW SORRY this took quite a while and I thought it'd be three parts but it's definitely gonna be four parts. So enjoy this bit with a dinosaur chase and some grounders!

Bellamy managed to recover from his cold within the week but when he’d tried to go into work, Miller had sent him right back home, insisting that he’d earned at least another sick day and that he would just infect everyone else. So that afternoon when Miller showed up at his door, Bellamy was a little confused, but he was starting to get bored at home anyway, so he went with it.

“We need you to grab your new doctor bff, the other docs are busy and we’ve got a lead on Wells’ rover.” Miller came into the house all business.  

“Are you a little jealous of my hanging out with Clarke?” Bellamy prodded, a sly grin on his face.

Miller laughed. “No.”

“Your face is doing a little thing.” Bellamy pointed at him.

Miller tilted his head and paused a beat. “This is the face I make when my buddy is falling hard for a married woman.”  

“No.” It came out of Bellamy’s mouth before he had consciously thought it.

“Just you and me, man, Octavia isn't here,” Miller said.

“I'm not.” Vehement denial was how he convinced himself but it didn’t seem to be working on Miller.

“Cool,” Miller said. “I'll tell Bryan we can call off our morbid pool. Although, Monty was really hoping to win the homewrecker’s portion.”  
  
“What does that say about Monty?” Bellamy frowned.

Was he that obvious? Did Clarke know about this? He had to get this under control but he didn’t know how so he figured deflection was the plan since denial hadn’t panned out.

“Wanna know what Clarke said about Bryan?”

“Nope.” Miller crossed his arms.

“She said Bryan looks like me but white,” Bellamy said, ignoring Miller’s reply.

“Yeah, and?” Miller asked, unfazed.

“Why haven't we ever discussed this? Freudian slip, there?” Bellamy raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips to tease Miller.

“Listen, librarian nerd.”

“It's okay, buddy, I think you're pretty hot, too.” Bellamy winked at him.

“I’m outta your league,” Miler added, shaking his head.

Bellamy clutched his chest in mock horror. “I’m a solid 10.”

“I’m a 12 then,” Miller said. “But cut the shit, get the less uptight Dr. Griffin and take this.” Miller handed Bellamy a GPS tracker. “The beacon in the rover started to ping about 30 minutes ago. Should be a routine thing, but I figure you’ll need her for medical, just in case that doctor from Outpost Delta is a forgetful mess.”

“You’re gonna let me go unchaperoned? I thought I was too sick for work today?”

“You said you felt fine and everyone that’s interacted with Dr. Tsing hates her guts so you’re up, short straw.”

“Fine.” Bellamy ran a hand through his hair. “But just so we’re clear, Clarke is my friend. Just my friend.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

 

\--

 

“Do you think he noticed? I don’t think I was panicked enough at first. I should have been more upset but I was just so...confused by everything that was happening.” Clarke had been going over the events of Outpost Delta nonstop in her head and aloud.

Raven grumbled, her voice nasal from her heavy cold. “Stop. I don’t care what he thought. It was a truly rare and ludicrious situation. I’m sure if he’s replayed anything, it was the part where you guys held hands because he obviously likes you.”   
  
“But that’s bad!” 

Raven rolled her eyes, grabbing another tissue. Clarke was already free and clear of the cold, she’d woken up this morning for the first time in days, with clear sinuses. Raven would have another day to go but at least her brain wasn’t mush from that infection.

“Why is that bad?”

“If he likes me, and he puts some of the pieces together from the outpost, he might, he might see that we’re lying,” Clarke explained, she couldn't stop her hands from fidgeting. “He’s crazy smart, I’m kind of shocked he hasn’t already put it together.”

Raven sighed. “You’re hyper aware because we’re living this. He has no idea. It’s fine. We’re fine.”

“You don't remember, you and Wells were hot and heavy. He kept bringing it up,” Clarke argued.

“Well then, I guess we’re doomed,” Raven deadpanned.

“That’s not funny.”

“It’s not, but I’m sick and you won’t leave me alone. Go to work or something,” Raven begged. “Let me take a nap.”

Someone knocked on the door and Clarke went to answer it. She tried to temper her smile when she saw Bellamy. It was a constant problem, trying not to act like she was over the moon to see him.

“Feeling better?” he asked and she nodded, letting him into the house.

“Much. You look better too,” Clarke added.

“Apparently all of medical is busy and Miller sent me the coordinates, we got a lead on Wells’ rover so he figured you and I could go check it out, since we’ll need medical help for Dr. Tsing.”

His hands were in his pockets like he was nervous

“If we find her,” Clarke said.

“Yeah, so you up for it?”

“God, please take her away,” Raven groaned from the couch. “She’s been annoying me for hours!”

“Your wife’s not a good patient, huh?” Bellamy teased, misunderstanding the situation. There was no way he’d ever really understand because, well, they couldn’t tell him.

“She’s a terrible patient,” Clarke said, with a dramatic sigh.

Raven gave them both the finger. She stood up, wrapped her giant quilt around her whole body, glared at them, and shuffled back to her room.

“It’s not all the way at Outpost Delta, right?” Clarke asked, remembering the three hour drive from the other day.

“Nah, the signal popped up just about 15 miles from the colony. Won’t take long at all to check it out.”

“Let me just grab my med bag and we’ll go.”

“Ready when you are,” Bellamy said, rocking back on his heels.

 

\--

 

The ride was uneventful but as soon as they'd spotted the rover, Clarke immediately worried.

“Both doors are open,” Bellamy noted.

“Why would she do that?” Clarke asked, walking towards the vehicle. Bellamy shook his head, looking around the area.

They were near the edge of a clearing, Clarke could hear water in the distance, and the rover was parked haphazardly, exactly what she'd expect from someone who wasn't in their right mind.

Clarke walked around the rover, she wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for, but she kept her eyes open anyway. Bellamy though, walked away from the vehicle, heading towards the trees in the distance.

“Get your bag,” Bellamy shouted back to her.

Clarke grabbed her medical bag from the back of Bellamy’s rover, feeling a little nervous. “What’d you find?”

When she reached Bellamy, he was wedged between two trees. He pointed to a wet spot near the base of the tree.

“Could be her blood, could be something else,” he said, pushing off the tree and following some path that Clarke couldn't see.

Before following him, Clarke bent down to get a closer look at the blood splatter. It could have been human and she tried to think of the ways that blood would end up down here. Maybe Dr. Tsing was running and scraped her leg on the tree, maybe she fell.

She was pulled out of her thoughts though when she heard the cocking of a weapon and then heard Bellamy’s disgruntled sigh.

Thinking fast, she stuffed her medical bag behind the tree, before a grounder came running at her, gun drawn. She put her hands up and Bellamy nodded at her, she felt like he was trying to let her know everything would be fine despite the fact that they were surrounded by a lot of people with guns. At least 10 of them.

The man who held her at gunpoint tilted his head and corralled her closer to where Bellamy was, stopping when they were standing side by side.

A woman with long hair and a dramatic smokey eye stood in front of Bellamy, the smallest hint of a smile on her lips.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk since the Chancellor promoted you, Lieutenant.”  
  
“Tried to catch up when you had your guy steal antibiotics a few weeks ago but you just blew me off, Anya, honestly, my feelings were a little hurt.” Bellamy was calm, he was practically flirting with this woman. Clarke wasn’t jealous or anything except okay she probably was.

“Had errands to run, sorry.” She feigned a frown. “I’m thrilled we could get together today though, and thanks for the presents. Minus the dead scientist we found.”

She lifted her chin and one of her people took the gun from Bellamy’s thigh holster. Bellamy’s jaw ticked.

“Your rover’s got new tires, can’t wait to take her out and do donuts. She’s gonna look so good in my garage.”

“Feel free to give me your home address so I can check up on the rover later. And you know, so I can drop by and say hi whenever I want,” Bellamy said. The light tone of before was replaced by sarcasm and irritation usually held for Abby.

“Wish you’d brought more ammo with you. You’re out in the wild, Blake, sonics don’t always work, your teams should have ammunition, just in case,” she said.

“It’s so sweet the way you worry about us, but I’d rather not give you the opportunity to steal it so we’ll stick to sonics.”

“Look at us, we were so different in our past lives,” Anya ruminated.

Clarke wondered who Anya was before she came to Terra Nova.

“Isn’t it funny? This place makes us all very different.” Anya’s gaze shifted to Clarke. “Who’s your new friend?”

“Clarke, she came through on the 10th,” Bellamy answered, his eyes never leaving Anya.

“Hi,” Anya said, a curious look on her face.

“Hello,” Clarke reciprocated. Clarke wasn’t scared, more anxious about what this strange showdown was leading to, beyond clearly having their ride stolen.

“What did you come to offer the great colony of Terra Nova, Clarke?”

She started to open her mouth but Bellamy spoke before she could, “She was an art student.” Clarke swallowed, unsure of why he was lying and more than a little confused as to how he knew she had once been an art student.

“So this has to be a walk OTG to impress her, huh? What job did you get, sweetie? Probably something awful.” Anya gave an almost sympathetic look.

“You should see her paint with the construction team, got her parents’ money’s worth from those art classes when you see her with a roller,” Bellamy replied. “Too bad her lottery number didn’t come up until after they died.

Anya laughed. “I know who she is, dumbass, but it was fun watching you work that.”

Bellamy rolled his eyes. Clarke tried to say something again but Bellamy shook his head sharply. Clearly, she wasn’t allowed to speak. She tried again but this time Anya spoke over her.

“I don’t want your new doctor. I’ve got a doctor and he works just fine. But I will take her med bag.”

“I didn’t bring one,” Clarke lied. Bellamy didn’t react so if he was mad she finally got a word in, he didn’t look it.

Anya clucked her tongue a few times. “This has been fun, but we’ve gotta jet, thanks for two new rovers, Lieutenant Blake.”

She walked past them towards the rovers, Clarke turned around to watch her go but Bellamy didn’t. He just stood, glaring at the grounder still holding them at gunpoint. His head was shaved close, making him almost look bald, but for a stripe of hair down the middle of his head.

“Let’s go,” Anya shouted from the driver’s seat of Bellamy’s rover.

The man didn’t immediately go. He looked over Bellamy, his face blank.

“Scram,” Bellamy said, his voice low.  “Or you’re gonna have to walk home, like us.”

He gave him one last look before running to get into one of the two rovers that were now in the possession of the grounders.

Bellamy finally turned to watched them ride off, the way he sucked in air and the set of his jaw showing his annoyance.

“So we’re just going to let them leave?” She was surprised at his lack of response. “Do you have a plan or something?”

Bellamy huffed. “My plan is to walk our asses home before it gets dark. There’s slashers out here.”

“What the fuck is a slasher?” Clarke asked, suddenly worried about her safety on the pretty mild walk home.

“Acceraptors, they have these tails that slash at prey, basically a knife for a tail.” Bellamy shielded his eyes with a hand on his brow as he looked at the sun. “Let’s head out. We’re at least four hours from home, if we walk fast, and we only have three more good hours of daylight. Slashers are nocturnal so let’s move fast.”

Clarke tried to ignore the way her stomach was churning and ran back to the tree where she’d stashed her medical bag.

“Why did Anya ask for this?”

“They only have the shit they steal from us, even band aids are useful when you’ve got nothing,” Bellamy explained.

“So they probably needed the antibiotics that were stolen.”

“Probably an outbreak of something hit them hard,” Bellamy said, guiding Clarke by the elbow back the way they came, except instead of a nice rover ride home, now they were on foot.

 

\--

 

It was hot and there were bugs. So many bugs. And Bellamy was grumpy. Every now and then he’d get his bearings, checking where the lowering sun was, looking at other stuff that Clarke didn’t really take in. She trusted him to get them home.

“So, we should be coming up on Terra Nova soon, right?” Clarke asked, as dusk pressed in on them.

Bellamy looked from side to side. The forest in front of them was thick and if Clarke were to guess, she’d say the backside of the colony was through the forest.

He didn’t answer her question, instead picking up his pace to hit the forest, then throwing his head back to examine the tops of the trees.  
  
“Uh, what are you doing?” she asked, slightly out of breath when she’d caught up with him.

Bellamy looked at her and licked his lips, he was nervous. “I’m finding a good tree to spend the night in.”

Clarke laughed at him. But he didn’t falter, didn’t return her smile.

“Oh god, you’re serious,” she said, sobering up.

He pressed his lips together, considering his words. “We didn’t walk fast enough, the colony is still a few miles through these woods, it’s getting too dark for us to keep going.”

“I’ve never,” Clarke couldn’t help but half laugh through her sentence, “climbed a tree. How am I even going to get up there?”

Bellamy tilted his head. “That’s why I’m looking for a good one. And I’ll give you a boost.”

“This is going to be the worst night ever.”

“Is my company really that bad?” he joked, this time giving her a grin.

“You know the company isn’t the problem.” She put her hands on her hips but he was already moving onto the next tree.

He settled on a tree that had a wide trunk, long tendrils of branches like ivy ran around the base, creating footholds. But no matter how Clarke tried, she couldn’t get her feet to cooperate. She clung to the side of the tree, a few feet off the ground, trying to find a new place for her feet to keep climbing. She was busy concentrating on her stalled climb so she missed the way that bushes that surrounded them started to rustle.

Bellamy cleared his throat. “Right there, put your foot right there,” he snapped.

Clarke assumed he was frustrated at her slow pace but then she heard it. Not a growl or a roar like she expected, but instead, something like a turkey gobble, but louder, sharper. She froze, her muscles tensing and her heart speeding up.

“Faster Clarke,” Bellamy shouted.

Still, Clarke couldn’t move. She grasped the side of the tree and moved her foot frantically, trying to find any spot to help leverage her way up but nothing.

“Dammit!”

Clarke looked back in time to see Bellamy get under her, putting his hands on her ass and pushing her into the tree.

She scrambled onto the bough that would be large enough to hold them both, but just barely. The solid thumps of a dinosaur could be heard all around her, but they sounded like they were underwater to her. Clarke’s breathing was short and heavy, her and her vision was blurry. She was panicking.

She swallowed, desperate to try and get herself under control but it wasn’t working.

A few seconds that seemed like hours passed and Clarke gasped, looking over the edge of the bough to offer Bellamy some help as he climbed.

He was coming up just fine, when Clarke saw something like a whip flash behind him. Bellamy shouted out in pain, and fell the few feet to the ground.

“Bellamy!” she cried, feeling like everything was happening too quickly.

He landed, crouched, he waved an arm up to her. “I’m fine.”

But then he turned quickly and took off in a run.

“Bellamy!”

Clarke tried to climb a little higher so she could see more of the area on the ground, but she couldn’t see him. She called for him again, no answer. Instead, she watched a slasher scratch at the base of the tree, looking up at her. It was over six feet tall. The realization seemed to renew her hysteria. Bellamy wasn’t even that tall. That thing would kill him.

“Think Clarke, think, what can I use to help?” she asked herself, hoping her own voice might snap her out of her panic.

She swallowed past the lump in her throat and tried to will her tears to stay put.

Her bag. She had her bag. She reached around herself to grab the tote she’d thrown up before. Vaguely, she heard the slasher at the base of the tree wander off. Her hands shook but she got the bag open and started to dig through it for something, anything that could help Bellamy.

“Matches! Dinosaurs hate fire!”

Clarke felt her chest lighten ever so slightly at her small victory. Pulling a smaller branch from the tree, she went to work wrapping gauze around it tightly. Back to the bag, she dug further and found some alcohol pads used for cleaning wounds, ripping them open with fumbling fingers was a task but she managed, and then stuffing them in the gauze around the branch.

“Bellamy!” she called out, as she finished making what she hoped would be a reasonable torch. “Bellamy!”

She knew he hadn’t gone far, she could still hear the dinosaurs thumping steps as they chased after him.

“Stay where you are!” Bellamy shouted from somewhere to her left.

She whipped her head around and tried to make him out in the quickly darkening night. The movement from something caught her eye and she decided it was now or never, she stretched her arms, shaking her whole body as if she could rid herself of her fear, then grabbed the bundle of matches and her gauze wrapped stick and jumped down.

When she landed, her knees buckled and she twisted her ankle too far to the side, but she stood up quickly, ignoring both her panic and her pain. It took only one try, thankfully, to light the match and then she was holding the torch at arm’s length as she carefully lit it with the match. It took a few seconds to catch but as soon as it caught, the gauze and alcohol pads started to wither and burn.

“Yes,” she whispered to herself, the tension in her shoulders relaxing just barely.

Clarke’s pride at her accomplishment was short lived, as she heard Bellamy’s foot falls followed by the pounding of the slasher behind him.

Her eyes darted in every direction, she heard them coming but she couldn’t see them, it was too dark now, and even with her torch, visibility was almost nothing.

“Bellamy!”

“Clarke!” His voice came from her left, she waited for him to run past her and then, with a jab, she tried to hit the slasher’s side with the torch.

The dinosaur shrieked, but the torch didn’t stop it, instead, Clarke’s grip held as the slasher kept running, she burned it along it’s side as it ran, like keying a car that was speeding by. She heard the whip of the tail and ducked down, letting her torch hit the ground and before she knew it, Bellamy was hoisting her up into the tree again. This time when she was on the bough, she turned quickly, grabbing his shoulders and pulling with all her might to lift him.

“I got it, I got it,” he said, catching his breath, while he climbed more fully into the tree.

Clarke backed up and gave him the space to get upright but when he was stable she practically tackled him. She clung to him, nestling her face in his neck and shamelessly letting her lips rest on the bare skin there. He did the same, arms solid and tight around her, she felt his nose under her ear and she wished, god, she wished for this all the time.

Still breathing heavy, she pulled back when his arm loosened its tight grasp on her back.

They were so close, she could feel his breath on her check. She sighed, heavy and tired.

“I thought you were going to die,” she said, her voice trembling like the rest of her body coming down from the adrenaline and panic.

“And that would be bad,” he said, before gulping, his eyes earnest. “Because you’d never get home to your wife.”

Clarke’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open and there was no schooling her features. She closed her eyes, hoping to just avoid his soft look and freckles, to center herself, ready to lie.

“Clarke, are you okay?”

He sounded so concerned. So gentle and genuine.

She pulled herself just a bit further from him, trying to dislodge her grip as gradually as possible without setting off red flags.

“Yeah,” she answered, a sigh and a laugh mixed together to sell it. “If you weren't here, I'd have to live in this tree forever. I'd never make it home.” She couldn't feign a smile so she settled on biting her lip.

His eyes glanced down and she didn't dare hope he was looking at her lips. Her traitorous tongue worked of its own accord and swiped across her lips rebelliously. Bellamy swallowed and the arm he’d held her with tightened ever so slightly around her. But almost immediately he'd loosened up again, he looked away and inhaled sharply, then exhaled slow.

“You were good in class. You'd make it home. Eventually.”

“Sure,” she said, thanking her lucky stars that the whole ordeal they'd just lived through provided great cover for her breathy tone.

“There's not much room, but are you comfortable? We're gonna need to stay up here all night.”

She felt Bellamy adjusting his position next to her and he opened his arms. She nodded, tucking herself into his side. Friends did that. Friends could get close in the night’s chill and rest their heads on their friend’s shoulders when they were about to spend the night in a tree. There wasn't room to spread out. It was a necessity to be close. This was all very platonic.

When she leaned her head down though, Bellamy hissed. She instantly sat up and looked at him with narrow eyes.

“You didn't tell me you were hurt,” she scolded him, finding all of this situation easier when she slipped on her doctor persona.

“It's nothing, you just hit it at the exact right spot,” he said, but she saw blood through his shirt.

From his shoulder to the end of his clavicle, Clarke found a deep gash when she pulled back the collar of his shirt. She pulled his t shirt collar down and then grabbed her med bag.

“Just bandage it,” Bellamy said.

Clarke scoffed. “I’ve got some dermabond in my bag, you’re lucky. This bag has made your night easier twice now.”

“That’s comforting, I’d rather not have stitches in this tree.” Bellamy gave her a half smile.

 

\--

 

Bellamy woke with a crick in his neck and his whole body aching. Also, a blonde practically in his lap. To be fair, there wasn’t much room, especially much sleeping room, on the bough. But they’d made it work. Clarke fell asleep almost instantly the night before, after some shifting and rearranging of themselves so that his back was against the trunk of the tree and she was no longer snuggled into his right side, where the slasher’s tail had dug in deep. Her legs were over his and as he was in that bleary not quite awake phase, he rubbed her back with one hand and the other held her knee.

This was not how friends usually touched each other. But whatever Clarke’s feelings might be (and he suspected they were maybe a little more than friendly) it didn’t matter. The argument with her mother weeks ago where Clarke asserted that she would never cheat was fresh in Bellamy’s mind. Even the thought brought on a fresh wave of guilt. He’d just been feeling dejected that his friend wouldn’t cheat on her spouse with him. This was not a position he wanted to be in. When they got back to the colony today, he was going to put some space between them. This wasn’t good for him and it wasn’t good for her or her marriage.

Then again.

Maybe.

Maybe this was a scam.

Maybe Clarke and Raven’s marriage was just to get Raven here. He thought back to Clarke’s lack of reaction at Outpost Delta, but no.

No.

He dismissed it immediately.

He was only hoping because he wanted Clarke.

He remembered her face when she found out Raven was going with Wells for that long trip. The way Clarke took care of Raven when they came through the portal, even the way Clarke tried to smother Raven with attention when she was sick before they left on this little disaster.

She loved her wife. Clarke had all but shut down when her mother suggested she was being unfaithful. And why would Bellamy even want that? That reaction she had was indicative of how much she didn’t want to be like her mother and how deeply her mother’s infidelity had hurt Clarke. He liked her too much to let her skirt so close to the behavior she despised.

Bellamy needed to step back.

But in the early light, he could steal a few more glances, torture himself with the way she fit next to him. Seeing her eyelashes fan across her cheek, she pouted just barely as she breathed, and the weight of her against him, he tried not to imagine all the other ways he’d want her like this. Her hand knotted in his shirt gently. He gave her one more look, before nudging her to wake up.

Clarke groaned, but snapped to quickly.

“I didn’t dream this. I’m sleeping in a tree,” she said, her voice thick with sleep. “This is awful, I hurt all over.”

“Me too, which is why we should climb down so we can get home and shower.”

“I need a bubble bath,” Clarke added, stretching her arms over her head.

“Down from the tree first, Griffin.”

He awkwardly maneuvered around her in their limited space so that he could climb down first. The idea being that he could help her down, but she made it down just fine, that is until her feet touched the ground and she almost collapsed. He steadied her at the waist and she cringed.

“I forgot about my ankle.”

“What about it?” he asked, concerned. “We have to walk at least two more miles.”

“I’ll manage,” she said, but he could see her grimace when she took a step away from him.

“How did that even happen?”

“When I jumped out of the tree last night, I twisted it wrong.”   
  
“You’re not supposed to jump out of trees!” He put his hands on his temple, aggravated. “Climbing is what you’re going for. Climb up and climb down.”

“Sorry, I was trying to make sure you didn’t die, so I made a mistake! And how was I supposed to know, last night was the first time I’d ever been in a tree!” Clarke snapped.

“I’m not going to carry you back to the colony.” He put his hands on his hips, annoyed.

“I can walk!”

“Yeah, sure you can,” Bellamy said.

“It’s shocking we didn’t find you sooner,” Miller said, appearing behind them. “You’re fighting loud enough I think Bryan can hear you back at Terra Nova.”

“Thank god,” Clarke said, relieved. “I’m gonna hobble off and pee before you hopefully drive us back?”

Miller nodded.

“How’d you know to come looking?” Bellamy asked, as Clarke walked away for some privacy.

“Octavia came to me frantic last night, at dusk, said she had a bad feeling,” Miller explained. “Checked both rover trackers and couldn’t find them, started to gather people to come out looking but it was too dark. I knew you’d be fine overnight.”

He gestured with his chin to Bellamy’s now healing gash on his chest.

“Slasher,” he said. “Anya showed up, one of her people found the scientist’s body, they stumbled onto the rover right before we showed up and ambushed us to take my rover, too.”

“And what about her?” Miller asked, his head tilting in the direction that Clarke walked off in.

“She stashed her medbag so the grounders didn’t take it, she scared off a slasher with fire, she was brilliant and quick, except I guess for that part where she jumped out of a tree.”

Miller gave him a look.

“What?” he asked, shortly, knowing exactly what the look meant.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“But you were thinking something.”

“Nope.” Miller looked over Bellamy’s shoulder. “If you’re gonna do it can you at least give me an inside timetable. I’m wanna dominate Monty’s homewrecker pool.”

Bellamy narrowed his eyes. “Nothing happened. We spent the night cramped in a tree.”

Miller just looked at him again, face stoic.

“Nothing.”

Again, the same look.

Bellamy looked behind him to check for Clarke, then lowered his voice, “You don’t...do you think maybe it’s a scam marriage?”

Miller shook head his slowly as if each shake judged Bellamy.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so either. I was just...never mind.” He cleared his throat. “What did Octavia say to you, specifically?”

“That she had a bad feeling about you not being back yet.”

“Were those her exact words?” Bellamy asked, remembering the stare down he had with the grounder yesterday.

“Let’s go, I smell disgusting and I’m starving, any chance you have any snacks in your rover, Miller?” Clarke asked, joining them again.

“Yeah, let’s get you two home.”

 

\--

 

When they reached the gates of the colony, Bellamy saw Octavia waiting for him. This was the best possible outcome because they needed to talk. He had some suspicions and though his sister had been cagey or downright combative lately, he hoped that he could get something out of her.

He vaguely registered Raven greeting Clarke, all hugs and worried brow, and if he was going to stick to his plan, this might be the last time he saw Clarke in a while, but he needed to worry about Octavia and her erratic behavior so he barely spared Clarke a glance as he nudged Octavia home, a hand on her elbow.

She groused the whole walk home, but she went with him. As soon as he’d shut the door, he started shouting.

“How’d you know, Octavia? Did your boyfriend tell you? Did you know they were going to ambush us and leave us stranded? Because if that’s the case, I’m gonna-”

Octavia cut him off, her tone barely apologetic, and just as loud and irritated as his own. “No, I didn’t know that was going to happen! I wouldn’t have let you leave if I did!”

“Because you talk to Anya’s grounders now? Maybe you can solve the mystery of why they left, can you at least give me some good intel since you’re paling around with them?”

“I’m not paling around with them, and he’s not my boyfriend!”

“Are you sure? He gave me quite the once over, it was definitely the guy from the antibiotic theft. He knew who I was, I could tell.” Bellamy felt his jaw tick. “How’d you know to have Miller look for us?”

“You didn’t come home,” she tried.

“There’s plenty of days I don’t come home.” Bellamy sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. He was exhausted and he needed a shower. He didn’t want to play 20 questions with his sister.

“He let me know, after they left you, he warned me that you and Clarke were out there,” Octavia admitted, she was picking at something on the arm of the couch.

Bellamy sat down and she did too.

“This is so dangerous, O.” Bellamy shifted his strategy, hoping to get through to her. “We still don’t know why the Sixers left, they’re always taking weapons, stealing from the colony. They’re not good people, I know you’re an adult but I’m worried about you.”

“Mostly worried about how it looks, right?” she said, sullenly.

“No, well, maybe a little. But mostly I’m worried about your safety. If the Chancellor finds out you helped steal the medicine, if he finds out you’re helping Anya, you could be banished, which I know you think is no big deal. You’re probably thinking you’ll just go off with your boyfriend and live happily ever after in the forest or something, but the grounders are dangerous and if you’re not useful to them, they won’t help you.”

Octavia chewed on her lip and he thought he was getting through to her, that is, until she stood up abruptly and headed for the door.

“I have to go to work. Shower, you smell gross,” she said, before slamming the door.

Bellamy banged the back of his head against the back of the couch and a few times out of frustration. Reasoning with Octavia was pointless and this was all going to blow up into a huge mess that he’d have to clean up.

 

\--

  


“Are you gonna be okay? With your ankle?” Raven asked, as she helped Clarke out of the shower. “I can probably stay home from my shift and take care of you.”

“You missed three days of work because of the cold, you’re finally feeling better. Go to work. I’ve got these crutches,” she said, pointing to the crutches against her bed that her mother had sent over. “I’ll be fine.”

Clarke wrapped herself up in a towel and Raven tilted her head.   
  
“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Clarke repeated. “Go to work!”

“You almost died.” Raven was trying to joke about it but Clarke could tell she was actually worried for her.

“Technically, Bellamy almost died. I just jumped out of a tree.”

“I’m going to work before I smack you,” Raven said. But she reached over and hugged her tightly.

“It’s okay,” Clarke said, holding tightly to Raven and feeling a wave of fondness for her friend wash over her.

 

\--

 

Around midday, Wells showed up with lunch and an excuse about her ankle and how Clarke shouldn’t be hobbling around making food. Clarke was happy to see him, she hadn’t had a chance to talk to him since Bellamy had explained the hiring process and vouching for people.

“So you and Blake spent the night in a tree, huh? That’s a wild story,” Wells said, handing Clarke a plate of food.

“This place is one wild story after another, I’m finding.”

“I’m so glad you guys are here,” he said, stabbing a piece of broccoli. “Terra Nova is so much better with you here.”   
  
“Raven’s not here,” Clarke smiled, “You can chill on the gushing.”

“It’s not just her, having you here has been fun, too,” he added. “No one ever ran after an Ornithomimus egg and brought it back to raise it so…”

“Gail is fun. You know I’m less fun.”

Wells scoffed. Clarke pushed her food around her plate for a minute before going for it. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous to ask him but she was.

“Why didn’t you vouch for Raven?” She didn’t look at him when she asked the question, but she saw his eyes get wide out of her periphery. She took that moment to pop a bite in her mouth to avoid explaining further.

“I did.” He wasn’t lying but there was something about his tone. “I did every time I saw her application come through. She applied nine times. Did you know? Nine times in two years. That’s the exact number. And every single time, I vouched for her.”

“Why did I have to marry her to get her here?” Clarke asked, torn between confusion and irritation.

“I don’t know.” This time she knew he was lying. He bit the inside of his cheek and looked down.

“Wells.”

“I tried. It just never worked.”

“Wells, I know you,” she reminded him, she didn’t want to outright call him a liar so she hoped this admonition would put him on the right track.

He drummed the fingers of his free hand on the table and Clarke knew he was trying to decide what to tell her. She didn’t say anything, just waited, patiently for a few seconds.

“My dad doesn’t like her.”

“What?” Clarke asked, shocked, her anger flaring.

“He said she had her chance to come when I asked her to marry me.” He looked sheepish, embarrassed even, still not making eye contact with her.

“Let me march right into his office and-”

Wells cut her off. “And what? Tell him we all conspired to get Raven here illegally? That you married her and lied. That you used your mother’s connection to even get your place here? You didn’t even want to come!”

“Isn’t it against some rule? Your dad wouldn’t let her come because he was holding a grudge?” she asked, incredulous.

“Don’t act surprised. You and my father are olympic medalists in grudge holding.”

Clarke made a face at the insinuation. “Did you confront him about it?”

“I’ve tried. A few times. But then you and Raven had the plan to come here, and I gave up the last time. You were coming. She was coming. Who cares at this point?”

“I care!” Clarke shouted. “It’s the principle of the thing!”  
  
Wells didn’t flinch at her shouting. She thought he might have rolled his eyes. “It’s not against the rules. Not technically anyway.”

“She’s only been here 5 weeks and she’s holding the place together already with her bare hands and duct tape. Raven is the most valuable person in the mechanics department. Your father kept his own colony from a great mechanical engineer because she wouldn’t marry you when you asked.”

“Don’t act like you’re the only one with the right to be angry.” Wells snapped. “I’ve been angry plenty. I just kept it to myself. It doesn’t help us at all.”  
  
“It could.”

“It won’t.”

They were both cut off by the chirping noises of Gail outside.

“I’ll go feed her,” Wells said, getting up. “Gotta head back to work anyway. I’ll see you tonight.”

“Yeah, bye,” Clarke said, trying to recover from her outburst. This wasn’t fair at all, but at least she knew that Wells had tried. Maybe not his best, but he’d tried, and that was worth something.

 

\--

 

“Get off my fence!” Bellamy yelled at the kids huddled around Gail’s pen.

“It's Dr. G’s fence.” Dorothy smiled with that toothy, smug grin that only a nine year old could pull off.

“I built that shit, it’s mine, get off it and leave my bird alone.” Some of the kids’ eyes got wide at the swear and hopped off the fence, but Dorothy stayed in her spot.

“It’s a dinosaur.”

“Oh, that’s right, you were born here, weren’t you, kid,” Bellamy said. “You don’t even know what a bird is.”

“I wasn’t born here. I came when I was five.” She huffed and narrowed her eyes at him which made it difficult to be annoyed at her.

“But you don’t know what a bird is,” Bellamy replied.

Her face got all squinty. “I read about them in books. And chickens are birds, right? We eat them. You’re not going to eat Gail. I wanna ride her.”

Bellamy looked at the dinosaur. It’d been weeks. She was almost as tall as Bellamy now and Dorothy could certainly ride her but if they couldn’t teach her to fetch, there was no way they’d teach her to carry people.

“You can’t ride her. Wells is gonna release her back into the wild in a few weeks.”

“That’s a dumb idea when we could teach her to how to trot and let me ride her around.” Dorothy shrugged.

“Don’t you have homework to do or someplace to be?” Bellamy asked, annoyed.

“No, but since you won’t let me ride your dinosaur I’m outta here. This is boring. You’re boring.”

Bellamy scrunched up his own face, offended by her remarks. “Shoo,” he shouted to at her back as she walked away, though she didn’t respond.

He noticed Gail hadn’t been fed this afternoon and when he went to feed her, he saw there wasn’t any food in the outside container they’d set up so he shook out his shoulders in preparation to go in and see Clarke.

Bellamy had stayed true to his goal after the tree sleepover. He’d kept his distance from her. He only saw her occasionally over the last two weeks and it was always in tandem with taking care of Gail. As a general rule, he avoided her. She seemed put off by it but he never stuck around long enough to let her ask.

The rough thing was, he really missed her. He missed hanging out with her and cracking jokes and he really missed having her around for work things. He was going to head out to Outpost Alpha tomorrow and it would have been nice to have Clarke with him instead of Jackson. Not that there was anything wrong with Jackson, he just liked Clarke better...which is exactly why he was avoiding her.

He straightened his back and headed in the backdoor to try and get the food for Gail without making it obvious to everyone in the house that he liked a married woman way too much.

When he walked in though, his brain practically shut down. He didn’t knock. He never knocked when he was coming in the back door. It had never occurred to him that he needed to.

But there, on the couch, were Wells and Raven.

Kissing.

Clarke had her back turned to them at the kitchen island, he wasn’t sure what she was doing but he heard what she said.

“If you guys come up for air sometime soon, I made dinner.”

She was unfazed so unless some new amnesia virus had sprung up, this was exactly what it looked like.

Bellamy felt like someone had knocked the wind out of him.

“What the fuck?” he heard himself say. It was an odd almost out of body thing but he was painfully in his body watching a couple of friends betray him and that sucked.

Clarke turned quickly and Wells and Raven stood up. He could only look at Clarke though. Her cheeks were red and her eyes were wide. She started to say something but Wells stepped closer to Bellamy and he was forced to shift his attention to Wells.

“This isn’t-” Wells started but then shook his head. “It’s not a big deal, we didn’t want you to-”

“Spit it out,” Bellamy said low and harsh.

“We should have told you but we had to get Raven here.” Wells had his hands up defensively like Bellamy might hit him, he considered it but instead clenched his jaw.

“That’s all you got,” Bellamy asked. “Some friend you are.”

Now Raven moved out from behind Wells. “Clarke wanted to tell you but we didn’t think it was a good idea-” At those words, he looked around Raven, not listening to the rest of what she had to say, just focusing on Clarke. Her mouth had closed now but she was still stunned, just staring wide eyed.

“Shut up,” Bellamy said to Raven, without looking at her, he pointed at Clarke. “You.”

She startled a little and he saw her swallow, but she didn’t say anything. Didn’t defend herself at all.

Bellamy wasn’t sure what he wanted from her, but he was so angry. How could she lie like this?

“Made me think I was an idiot for falling for-” he stopped himself, he kept telling himself it was just a crush but now that it’d come to this he knew it, he was falling for her. Pathetic. “And now you’ve got nothing to say?”

He didn’t yell, he could yell at Octavia all day long, but this was a quiet, embarrassed kind of fury pumping through his veins. Did she think he was stupid? Was she doing this to string him along so he wouldn’t pay attention to the crime he was supposed to watch for?

Clarke gaped like a fish for a few seconds before she said, “Falling for me?”

He laughed bitterly and clenched his fists, unable to handle the situation much longer. “I gotta go.”

“Wait,” Bellamy heard Wells say as he turned. He stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Are you going to turn us in?” Wells asked, concern evident in his voice and the thought only made Bellamy more furious.

“I’m a better friend than you so no, I don’t feel like doing that paperwork,” he bit out before he slammed the door.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can follow me on tumblr at cupcakesandtv!

**Author's Note:**

> I'd love to hear what you think! Leave me a comment! Or you can visit me on tumblr at cupcakesandtv!


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